A treatise on the incarnation of the Eternal Word

A TREATISE

INCARNATION

ETERNAL WORD.

NEW BURGH:

DAVID L. PROUDFIT.
1842.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1842,

BY DAVID L. PROUDFIT,

In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New- York.

H. LUDWIO, PRINTER,
73 Vwey «t, N. Y.

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE substance of the following Essay was
published several years ago, in an Edinburgh
periodical, in connection with a review of
some ephemeral publications on the human
nature of Christ. When the present Editor
first met with the article, he was so impressed
with its value, that he thought it would be
useful to give it to the public in a separate
form. This belief was strengthened by a re-
perusal, after the lapse of some years, and by
the concurring opinion of several judicious
friends. He accordingly proceeded to prepare
it for publication. In doing this, the whole
Essay had to be re-written and several altera-
tions made, as it was not originally written for
separate publication. No farther liberties,
however, have been taken with the Author
than were necessary to give the work a regu-
lar and connected form. In preparing it for

IV ADVERTISEMENT.

the press, the Editor believed it calculated to
subserve the cause of truth and righteousness,
and his sincere desire is that it may be blessed
to the welfare of his fellow-beings. How far
his estimate of the value of the work is correct,
will be judged by the Christian public, to
whom it is now respectfully committed.

THE INCARNATION.

THE doctrine of the Incarnation, so far as it
can be understood by man, is sufficiently sim-
ple, and might be stated in a few sentences.
But it has been so involved — not in mystery,
for a mystery the gospel makes it, and a mys-
tery it must ever remain— but in metaphysical
perplexities, as to make it look with a most un-
favourable aspect, upon almost every article of
our creed. It will therefore be necessary to
take a somewhat more extended survey of the
work of redemption than would otherwise have
been requisite, that we may, if possible, have
a clearer view of the Incarnation from the light
reflected on it by being viewed in its proper
place in the Christian system.

That God made all things for his own glory,
is a proposition which we suppose will not be
disputed by any. It is a proposition, however,
which requires some explanation. When we
say that he made all things for his own glory,
we mean, not that he made them for the pur-
pose of rendering himself more glorious than
he was from all eteniity, for that is impossible,
his glory being alike incapable of increase and
diminution, but that he made them for the pur-
1*

6 THE INCARNATION.

pose of making his glorious perfections mani-
fest. And when we say that he made all things
to manifest his own perfections, we mean that
the manifestation was to be given, not to him-
self, which was impossible, but to the creatures
whom he made. It was obvious then that the
manifestation wras to b%e made, both by the crea-
tures and to the creatures. They were to be
both the manifesters, and the percipients of the
perfections so manifested ; and this was the
great end of the being of the creatures. Now
as this is the end of every creature's being, that
it may, according to its nature, manifest the
perfections of God, and perceive them as man-
ifested by itself and all other creatures, it fol-
lows, as a necessary consequence, that to do
this must be just the glory and happiness of
the creature, its being's end and aim ; and it
follows also, that the higher the degree in
which any creature is capable of doing this,
the higher is the degree of glory and of happi-
ness which it is capable of attaining and en-
joying

That every thing, according to its nature and
capacity, does both manifest the perfections of
God, and rejoice in them, is a fact open to every
one's observation, and is often referred to in
Scripture. The inanimate parts of God's
works are often spoken of, not only as mani-

THE INCARNATION. 7

Testing his perfections, but as rejoicing in the
manifestation. " The heavens declare the
glory of God, and the firmament showeth forth
the works of his hands. Day unto day utter-
eth speech, and night unto night teacheth
knowledge." The sun rejoiceth to run his
race ; the heavens and the earth are called on
to hear the word of the Lord ; the sea roars
and the fulness thereof; the floods lift up their
voice ; the forests clap their hands, the moun-
tains break forth into singing, and the little
hills rejoice. These, no doubt, will be con-
sidered as figurative expressions, and so they
are ; but then they are expressions which
show the truth of the principle that all things,
according to their nature, manifest the perfec-
tions of God, and rejoice in them when so
manifested. The same remark still more ob-
viously applies to such things as have life and
feeling. The lower animals, which have re-
ceived their instincts from God, and enjoy his
bounties, though they know not, nor can know,
any thing of him from whom their enjoyments
come, afford a still more striking manifestation
of his perfections, as is amply and beautifully
illustrated towards the end of the book of Job.
But beyond all creatures man is fitted not
merely to be the percipient of the Divine per-
fections, but to manifest these perfections ;

8 THE INCARNATION.

and this he does not simply by that bodily
structure which is " fearfully and wonderfully
made," nor by those mental faculties which
raise him so high above the lower animals,
which enable him to recall the past, to antici-
pate the future, and to approximate the re-
mote, but more particularly by the fall, the
redemption, and the whole history of the hu-
man race. The first lesson that our church
teaches her children is, " The chief end of
man is to glorify God and enjoy him for ever ; "
and it is upon this broad basis that we con-
ceive all sound theology must be built.

Now this leads us to consider the work of
man's redemption, not simply with a reference
to man alone, but to the whole rational family
of God. The election of Israel out of all the
tribes of the earth, to be the chosen people of
God, will afford us a correct illustration of the
choice of the human race as the objects in
whom his redeeming power and love might be
displayed, from among all the various races
that constitute his moral government. The
Israelites were not chosen to be the peculiar
people of God on account of any superiority
that they possessed over the rest of mankind,
for they were chosen in Abraham, before they
actually existed ; so neither were mankind
chosen to be the objects of God's redeeming

THE INCARNATION. 9

love on account of any intrinsic merit of their
own, for this idea is inconsistent with the fact
that they needed redemption, but were chosen
in Christ before they were created. The Is-
raelites were not chosen that they alone might
enjoy the blessing of God, but that, through
them, that blessing might come upon all na-
tions ; neither was man chosen to redemption
that its blessings might redound to him alone,
but " to the intent that unto the principalities
and powers in heavenly places, might be
known, by the church, the manifold wisdom of
God. The Israelites were chosen, that unto
them God might commit his revelations for
the use of all nations : so were men chosen,
that in them God might manifest his perfec-
tions for the instruction of all his rational crea-
tures. Though many of his chosen Israel
perished in their sins and their idolatries, yet
the great purposes for which that people was
chosen were effectually accomplished : so,
though multitudes of the human race perish,
yet the designs of God's redeeming love, and
the lessons which it is fitted to teach, are not
the less effectually accomplished. As the
Israelites, though far behind most other na-
tions in arts and sciences, yet taught to the
world something infinitely more valuable than
aught that art or science were ever capable of

10 THE INCARNATION.

discovering : so the human race, though far
inferior to man, other races, yet manifests to
all a knowledge of the character and perfec-
tions of God, which otherwise they could never
have known. And, finally, as the Israelites
are destined yet to stand at the very head of
the human race, and to be the most glorious of
nations : even so the human race, though now
so low, is destined to take its place at the
head of all the families of God. Human na-
ture is, at this moment, the most glorious of
created natures, taken, in its assumption by the
Son, into a nearness of union with the God-
head, which none other enjoys ; and where our
head is, there all his true members shall in due
time be. As the man Christ Jesus passed
through all suffering into glory, even so his
people, exposed to dangers which others never
knew, and made triumphant through his Spirit
dwelling in them, rise to honours with which
others can never be crowned ; and, living
monuments of all those divine perfections
which were displayed in their redemption,
living records of the glory of God, they will
awaken, among the hosts of heaven, a song
which, throughout eternity, will be ever new.
In fine, if all things were made for the purpose
of manifesting to the creatures the perfections
of the Creator, then, above all things with

THE INCARNATION. 11

which we are acquainted, must the work of
redemption be designed and fitted for this
great end.

In order to see how the human race, in their
fall and their redemption, acquire for them-
selves, and teach to others, this knowledge of
the perfection of the Creator, it will be neces-
sary to go back to a period when as yet there
was no sin in the dominions of God — when
there were none but unfallen beings in exist-
ence. Such beings, it is clear, could have but
a very limited and defective view of the nature
and character of God. From his works they
would be able to infer that he was possessed
of great wisdom and great power ; and, from
the happiness they enjoyed, they would be
persuaded of his great goodness. But that his
wisdom was omniscience — that his power was
omnipotence — that his goodness could extend,
not merely to the unfallen and unsmiling crea-
ture, but also to the ;' unthankful and the evil,"
they could not by any possibility know. Of
his other perfections they could have but very
little knowledge, if any at all. They could
not tell if he were immutable, when nothing
had occurred to put his immutability to the
test. For the same reason, they could not tell
if he were inflexibly just, unchangeably true,
infinitely and unalterably holy. They might

12 THE INCARNATION.

be able to prove, by abstract reasonings, the
probability that he possessed these perfections ;
but these proofs would be just similar in their
nature to the proof of the immortality of the
soul by Plato or Seneca — a fine speculation,
but producing no such conviction as to become
a living active principle, to be held fast and
acted upon, and carried out to its practical re-
sults, at the expense of all that is dear in life,
or at the expense of life itself.

These perfections, in order to be fully
known, must be seen carried out into actual
operation, and operating too, under such circum-
stances as to prove them to be absolutely infinite.
Of his mercy, it is obvious, that they could not
possibly have any idea whatever. A large
family living under the eye of a father, whom
not one of them has ever offended, may have
a considerable knowledge of his character ;
yet that knowledge must be imperfect and
defective. They cannot tell to what extent
his truth, his justice, his goodness may go ;
because nothing has occurred which could
afford an occasion of trying, of limiting or
restraining the exercise of these qualities. But
let some individual of the family offend him,
and then, in his treatment of that individual,
all the rest of the family, as well as the
offender himself, will obtain a new view, and

THE INCARNATION. 13

consequently a more extended knowledge of
his character. While the prodigal son dwelt
beneath his father's roof, he knew well the
goodness of his father's heart. But he did
not know the whole extent of that goodness.
When pining in want and misery, he resolved
to return to his father's house, — to be received
and treated as a hired servant, and that only
on the most lowly confession of his errors,
was all the extent to which he dared to hope
that his father's goodness could go. But when
his return was welcomed with joy and glad-
ness, when he felt his father's embrace, saw
himself arrayed in the richest robes, and
feasted in the most sumptuous mariner, then
did he feel convinced that his father possessed
a goodness, the existence of which he did not
dare previously to believe. Even so the great
Father of all, whose prerogative it is to bring
good out of evil, hath, out of the ruin of the
human race, drawn an exhibition of his own
character, from which angels, not less than
men, acquire new views and more extended
knowledge of it. And as that knowledge
constitutes the very end and aim of their
being, therefore, though possibly no danger
might result to them from our fall, yet their
glory and happiness have received, and will
2

14 THE INCARNATION.

receive, an incalculable augmentation from our
redemption.

With the commencement of moral evil, then,
whatever was its origin, commenced a new
and glorious development of the divine per-
fections. When part of the angels sinned,
and for their sin were doomed to punishment,
being driven out from the presence of the
Lord, and from the glory of his power, then
God was seen in a new relation, and an addi-
tional view of his character would be given.
Something would be known of him, that was
not known before. But then this knowledge,
like most other pieces of knowledge in intel-
ligent minds, would give rise to some doubts,
and to questions not easy to be solved. Some
illustration of God's displeasure against sin,
and of his power to punish it would be given ;
and they would feel that even though possessed
of angelic excellence, they must obey or suf-
fer. But then they would, for the first time
know sin, of which before its actual existence
among them, they probably had not even an
idea. And that idea would necessarily be
attended with a painful feeling,* — the feeling

* This is perhaps too strongly expressed. We can
scarcely conceive of perfectly holy beings subject to painful
feelings of insecurity. The same objection may, perhaps,
be urged against some previous expressions, in which it is

THE INCARNATION. 15

of insecurity- The offenders, it is true, were
driven out, but they now knew, what probably
they knew not before, that they were liable to
sin and to punishment ; and we may easily
conceive how such a knowledge would affect
their happiness. Their perfect and unsuspi-
cious confidence in, and reliance upon each
other, would be abated. The same cause that
had already introduced sin among them, might
produce the same effect again, and by succes-
sive defections, the throne of God might be
left without a worshipper. And it would natu-
rally occur to them to inquire, how it happened
that sin could enter into the dominions of God
at all ? If he were perfectly holy, then must
he hate sin; and if he were omniscient and
omnipotent, why did he not foresee and prevent
that, which, as holy, he must hate ? And these
are questions, to the solution of which, there is
no reason to suppose that they could make any

represented as impossible for creatures to know any thing of
the attributes of God, except by seeing their operations ;
since it is manifest that God could make himself known by
direct revelation. The main idea, however, is undoubtedly
correct in both cases. The attributes of God are chiefly
known by being seen in actual operation, and every new
exhibition of his immutability, and his goodness, would give
a new feeling of security, and additional happiness to his
holy creatures. The bible itself in making known to us
what God is, accomplishes the end chiefly by relating
what he does. — (Editor.)

16 THE INCARNATION.

thing like a near approach. Hence painful
fears and doubts would be the result of the
first appearance of sin in heaven.

When they saw man made, a part of their
fears would be removed. They would see
that there could be no room to fear, that though
all angels should rebel, " heaven should want
inhabitants, or God want praise." But the
first step in the providence of God, the fall of
man, would bring back all their fears with in-
creased pressure. Was God really so little
able to resist the rebels, that he could not up-
hold his own fair workmanship from being led
away captive by them ? When they saw Sa-
tan become the god of this world, would not
the power, and other perfections of God stand
greatly in doubt ? The sons of God shouted
for joy when man was made ; and that shout
was expressive, not simply of adoration at
seeing a new exhibition of their Maker's power,
but also of the delight which they felt at hav-
ing, by this exhibition of his power, so many
of those fears removed, which the entrance of
sin had awakened. And proportioned to the
delight which they felt, and expressed at man's
creation, would necessarily be the consterna-
tion with which they beheld his fall. And
when they heard it declared that man, though
fallen, and taken captive by Satan, yet was

THE INCARNATION. 17

not to be lost, what would be the result of
such a declaration ? Just new doubts, and new
fears. They would naturally ask, what new
thing is this ? or how can it possibly be ?
When angels fell they were driven away in
their wickedness, and no hope of restoration
was held out to them ; yet they still possessed
so much power as to have carried away man
into rebellion, and now he is not to die, even
after the sentence denounced, " In the day
thou eatest thou shalt surely die."* Was God
to prove himself regardless of his truth, by
recalling the sentence so solemnly pronounced ?
Was he to abandon his own holy law to vio-
lation, and his authority to contempt, by ex-
tending mercy to the transgressors 1 Was
the majesty of the divine government to be
insulted with impunity ? and was the holiness
of God to stoop to hold communion with that
which was polluted ? In short, was God to
prove that immutability formed no part of his
character 1 If he was destitute of any one of
these perfections, or if he possessed any one
of them only in a limited degree, and if angels
were about to see that limit reached, then their

* Adam did die on the day that he sinned, and angels
knew this. But this just increased the difficulty, for
how were creatures already dead in sin to be revived and
restored?

2*

18 THE INCARNATION.

happiness was gone. His immutability stood
most in doubt, and most of all was it necessary
that they should be well assured of this. For
what other security had they for the continu-
ance of their happiness, than just this, that he
who had made them, and bestowed that happi-
ness upon them, was a being who could not
change? Let this once be made doubtful, and
then, in addition to the feeling of insecurity
arising from a sense of their own liability to
sin, they would experience the still more pain-
ful feeling of insecurity derived from the mu-
tability of the divine character.

But then how could man be pardoned and
saved, without all these painful consequences
being the result ? God had most positive-
ly declared, that on the day in which he
transgressed he should die. Could that sen-
tence be reversed, or even its execution sus-
pended, without creating some question as to
how far his truth might be relied upon ? If the
law of God was violated, and the authority of
God trampled upon, with not merely impunity,
but with favour to the transgressor, was not
this in effect to abrogate that law? Even
under the Christian dispensation, which so aw-
fully demonstrates the sanctity of the law. how
difficult is it to prevent men from " turning the
grace of God into Iasciviousncss3" and from

THE INCARNATION. 19

sinning, " because grace abounds ?" But had
God forgiven men, without any demonstration
of the holiness, and the unalterable nature of
the law, this would have been just to set open
a flood gate for the introduction of all iniquity.
That God could, by a mere act of power, or, as
it ought rather to be called in this case, offeree,
have rescued the sinner from the grasp of Sa-
tan, and have created him anew, and have re-
instated him in higher happiness than that from
which he fell, may be perfectly true. But
what then became of his moral attributes'?
Who among his unfallcn children, could have
in this case avoided the conclusion that he was
an unholy, an unjust, a mutable, nay, a capri-
cious being ? And such an act of power, while
it might have been an act of great mercy to-
wards the guilty, would at the same time have
been an act of great cruelty towards the
innocent.

We are often told that it is an easy thing
for God to forgive sin — that there is nothing to
prevent him from withdrawing his right to
punish the guilty, and that such an act of grace
would highly illustrate his goodness, and
awaken songs of praise among both angels
and men. Nothing, however, can well be
more evident than the truth of the very reverse
of this. Among men such an act of grace

20 THE INCARNATION.

would have been, and could have been pro-
ductive of nothing else than the most unbridled
licentiousness; and among angels of nothing
but consternation and dismay ; and an act of
mercy so exercised would have defeated all
the purposes of mercy. Every sinner thus
rescued by an act of omnipotent power, not
from the grasp of Satan, but from the sentence
of God's most holy law, would have been just
a new monument of a mutable God, and of a
despised law, and instead of being hailed on
his entrance into heaven with songs of joy,
would have been received with expressions of
jealousy and fear. It is easy, it is said, for
God to depart from his right to punish ; but
by whom is this said 1 By men who have
never been convicted of sin, who know not how
exceedingly sinful a thing it is, who know
nothing of the extent and spirituality of the law
of God, and have never felt their need of and
dependence upon a Saviour. Ask you the
awakened sinner who has felt the terrors of the
law coming like water into his bowels, and
like oil into his bones, if he thinks it an easy
thing for God to forgive sin? He will tell
you that when a violated law set all his sins in
array before him, and when conscience con-
firmed the sentence of the law, so far was he
from thinking it an easy thing for God to for-

THE INCARNATION. 21

give his sins, that hardly all the grace mani-
fested in the Gospel could persuade him to
believe it possible, that even with God there
was an extent of mercy sufficient to forgive
his sins ; that while he felt no difficulty in be-
lieving the general proposition, that with God
there is mercy for sinners, he feels that nothing
but a divine power could have enabled him to
apply the general proposition to his own par-
ticular case, and to believe that there was mercy
in God sufficient for him. It is easy, we are
told, and told often, for God, by a mere act of
grace to pardon, and by a mere act of power to
regenerate and save sinners. It is easy for him
to forego his right to punish the transgressor.
But it is not seen, nor, save by the awakened
sinner, can be seen, that, in so doing, he fore-
goes all the inflexibility of his justice, all the
sacredness of his truth, all the sanctity of bis
law, all the spotless purity of his holiness, and
all the majesty of his government, and his de-
stroying all the security that is founded on the
immutability of his character. Moreover, the
pardon of sin, without any manifestation of its
hatefulness, or of the perfections of God, would
have brought both his wisdom and his power
into question. For surely it would have ex-
hibited much more of both to sustain man from
falling at all, than to leave him to fall, merely

22 THE INCARNATION.

in order to rescue him from its effects, by an ex-
ercise of power put forth at the expense of all his
moral attributes ; while all the lessons taught by
the work of Redemption, for the sake of which
the world was made, and man upon it, would not
only have been entirely lost, but it would have
been impossible to determine why some men
were saved, and others left to perish — why
grace was offered to one fallen race, and
none offered to another ; and it would in-
deed have been a question which defied solu-
tion, for what one useful purpose could such
a being as man possibly have been made 1
The Jews erred grievously when they sup-
posed that the dispensation, of which they were
the recipients, terminated in themselves, and
was given them, not for the sake, but to the
exclusion of all other nations. And we carry
the same error to a much more pernicious ex-
tent, and still more effectually mar the glory of
the work of redemption, when we consider that
work as terminating in man — when we con-
sider ourselves as an insulated race, and not
as beings intimately connected with, and made
for the sake of all the rational family of God.
Had no nation been to be blessed but the Jews,
the Jews wrould never have been chosen ; and
had no being been to profit by the work of
redemption but man, it seems impossible to

THE INCARNATION. 23

conceive one rational purpose that could be
answered, by such a creature as man being
made at all.

It was then when it was declared that fallen
man should be saved, and when it appeared
not how that salvation could be effected with-
out the most disastrous consequences to the
whole universe, without casting doubt and dis-
trust upon all the perfections of God, and upon
all the principles of his divine government,
that the great mystery of Redemption, into
which angels desire to look, and from which
they learn wisdom, began to run its mighty
course. It was then that the eternal Word
was announced as the Saviour of the fallen
race, who should rescue them from their thral-
dom, in a way which should not only cast no
doubt over the perfections of God, but should
afford the most glorious illustration of all these
perfections, — who should not only reconcile,
but continue in the most indissoluble union,
these apparently most irreconcilable things,
the glory of God, and the safety of sinful men
— who should unite, in most harmonious agree-
ment, these apparent contraries, the mercy
that pleaded for the sinner's safety, with the
truth which demanded his punishment, the
righteousness that condemned him, with the
peace that was promised him. The Son was

24 THE INCARNATION.

announced as the Prophet, Priest, and King
of the human race, and the first acts belonging
to all these characters he performed person-
ally- He, as prophet, announced to man the
hope of deliverance through the " woman's
seed." As priest he appointed sacrifices as
typical of his own death for sinners, and cloth-
ed our first parents with the skins of slain
beasts instead of their own fig leaves, as a
token that he would cover their spiritual naked-
ness by the perfection of his own righteous-
ness.* And as- a king he sent them forth to
cultivate the ground until they should return
to the dust whence they came. These offices,
thus formally and personally undertaken by the
Son, were thenceforth delegated to his repre-
sentatives, till the fulness of time should ar-
rive for his coming in the flesh. To what ex-
tent the knowledge of men or of angels, as to
the nature of these offices might then go, we
have no means of ascertaining ; but this we
know, that at that period commenced, and, in
the evolution of the work of Redemption, wras
gradually unfolded, for the instruction of both,

* This may appear rather a wild interpretation of this
transaction. If so, it is only the more suitable for the pre-
sent age. However, we should hardly, perhaps, have ven-
tured to put it down, had we not seen it sanctioned by sorne
sober and able writers ; among others by Benson, in his
Hulsean lectures on Scripture Difficulties.

THE INCARNATION. 25

nn exhibition of the glory of God's perfections,
of the majesty of God's government, and of
the sanctity of God's law, far beyond aught
that could have been derived either from the
sinless obedience, or the endless punishment
of all created beings.

It may perhaps be said, that a considerable
portion of what we have now been stating,
rests upon no better a foundation than conjec-
ture, and consequently, however plausible it
may be, cannot be relied on as certainly true.
But we think that, on a very little considera-
tion, all that we have assumed, at least all that
is in any way essential to our view, will be
readily granted. It will, we suppose, be grant-
ed that the invisible and incomprehensible God,
who dwelleth in unapproachable light, can be
known to angels, only in the same way in
which he is known to us, namely, by the con-
templation of his works and ways ; and that his
perfections could be very imperfectly known,
till they were seen in actual exercise. It will,
we suppose, be farther admitted, that angels
are just as deeply interested as we are, in see-
ing the perfections of God vindicated from all
the doubt and suspicion which were attached
to them by the entrance of sin into his do-
minions. And if, finally, it be admitted that
nothing that we know, or can form any con-
3

26 THE INCARNATION.

ception of, forms so glorious a manifestation
of the perfections of God, as the work of man's
Redemption, and that that work was designed
by God for this very purpose, then we see not
that we have assumed any thing that can be
denied. If on any minor point our readers
differ from us, we can have no dispute with
them on the subject, for it affects not our ge-
neral views.

We hold it indisputable that before the In-
carnation, when Christ came personally to ex-
ecute the offices of prophet, priest, and king,
as far as the execution of them on earth was
necessary, the angels had a much clearer view
of the nature of the work which he came to do,
than men had. For that work, being intended
for their benefit as well as ours, was doubtless
to them the object of most interesting study ;
and though no revelation of its nature had been
made to them, beyond what was made to man,
and we know of no reason to suppose that there
was, yet we take it for granted that they under-
stood much better than men, the meaning of the
types and shadows of the preparatory dispensa-
tions, and the predictions of the prophets. But
still, though they understood better than men
what Christ was about to do on earth, they
could have but a very imperfect and inadequate
conception of it till they saw it actually done.

THE INCARNATION. 27

Let us then consider what Christ came to do
in the flesh ; and this will lead us at once to see,
both the necessity of the Incarnation, and also
the necessity that, when he took flesh, it should
be not sinful flesh, but flesh completely and
totally alienated from all sinfulness. He came,
as we have already stated, to execute the offi-
ces of prophet, priest and king.

CHRIST OUR PROPHET.

Let us look then to Christ as our prophet.
His duty in the discharge of this office, was to
reveal unto us the Father, as he saith, " Nei-
ther knoweth any man the Father, save the Son,
and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him,"
and again it is said, " No man hath seen God
at any time, the only-begotten Son, which is in
the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him."
Now how did Christ reveal to us the Father?
Not by any set proofs of his existence, nor by
any abstract discussions upon his nature or
character, nor by didactic discourses, but by
action ; a mode of instruction as level to the
comprehension of the meanest capacity, as to
that of the loftiest, as intelligible to the peasant
as to the philosopher. He taught us, for exam-
ple, that God is holy. But how did he do this?
Not by any set dissertations on the holiness of
God, but by the unceasing and spotless holi-

28 THE INCARNATION.

ness of his own conduct. Never were allure-
ments more enticing than those by which he
was sometimes solicited, and never were trials
more severe than those to which he was com-
monly exposed, and never were testimonies so
numerous, unequivocal, and decisive, as those
by which it is proved that by.no allurement
was he ever enticed, by no trial was he ever
pressed into a deviation, or into the manifesta-
tion of a wish to deviate, from the path of duty.
Not only could he himself challenge his bitter-
est foes to convince him of sin, but the testi-
mony of his friends and foes alike concurs to
assure us that he "did no sin," and that in his
mouth guile was not found. In the same man-
ner he teaches us that God is good, not by any
regular proofs of this in his discourses, but by
the constant exhibition of it in his practice.
When the infirm and the distressed applied to
him, the application was never made in vain.
He never said to the applicant, you are of too
abandoned a character for notice, and richly
deserve all the misery you endure, or, your
disease is of too desperate a nature, or of too
long standing to admit of relief. No, but his
language was, "If thou canst believe, all things
are possible to him that believeth." And while
he was literally fulfilling the prediction which
thus spoke of the blessings of his coming, —

THE INCARNATION. 29

"Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped :
then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and
the tongue of the dumb shall sing ; " he was,
in so doing, giving proof of his power and his
readiness to give a far higher accomplishment
to this happy prediction, by healing the spiritual
diseases, of which those of the body were only
feeble, however painful symptoms. And when
he went about doing good, and healing all man-
ner of disease, we are expressly taught that the
design of his so doing was to lead men to ap-
ply to him for blessings of a higher order, and
to convince them of his power and readiness
to confer these blessings. Thus, when the
scribes murmured at hearing him say to the
man who was sick of the palsy, " Son, be of
good cheer ; thy sins be forgiven thee," he asked
them, " Whether is it easier to say, Thy sins
be forgiven thee ; or to say, Arise and walk 7"
very plainly intimating that he who had the
power and the will to do the one, had no less
the power and the will to do the other, a truth
which he proceeded still more directly to teach,
saying, — " But that ye may know that the Son
of man hath power on earth to forgive sins,
(then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise,
take up thy bed, and go unto thine house."
Here ability to command the sick man to arise
3*

30 THE INCARNATION.

and walk, is, by our Lord himself, adduced as
a convincing proof of his power to forgive sin.
Now, he who exhibited this unceasing holi-
ness, and this unlimited goodness, was God
with us, " God manifest in the flesh." And
such as he was in the world, even such is God.
If we wish to know the character of God, we
shall find it revealed there, where the life of
Jesus is recorded. Hence, the following most
distinct language is used by our Lord himself
on this subject : " If ye had known me; ye should
have known my Father also : and from hence-
forth ye know him, and have seen him. Philip
saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and
it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I
been so long time with you, and yet hast thou
not known me, Philip 1 He that hath seen me
hath seen the Father ; and how sayest thou
then, show us the Father ?" Hence, too, when
we are called upon to combat the fears that
take possession of the awakened soul, and the
arguments which ignorance and unbelief raise
up, in the heart of the convinced sinner, against
faith and hope, we find the record of our Sa-
viour's life a good and an efficient ground, on
which they may be combated. We just say
to the sinner under these circumstances, He,
whose goodness was so unlimited, was God
manifested in the flesh, and manifested there

THE INCARNATION. 31

that we might see with our own eyes, and have
the most perfect knowledge of the gracious
dispositions of God toward us. If you say that
you admit the general proposition, that there is
mercy with God for sinners, but dare not spe-
cifically apply the proposition to your own in-
dividual case, and hope that there is mercy for
you, then we say that you are negativing not
only his manifold and gracious declarations,
whereby he encourages the weary and the heavy
laden to come to him, that they may find peace
and rest ; but you are negativing the import of
the lesson taught by the whole course of his
conduct. For, from that exercise of inconceiva-
ble goodness which he manifested when, leav-
ing the glory which he had with the Father
before the world began, he condescended to
become obnoxious to every suffering that human
nature knows, in that flesh which he took into
personal union with himself, down to that other
equally inconceivable exercise of goodness
which he manifested when he bowed his head
and gave up the ghost, giving his own life for
that of a lost world, what one act in the whole
course of his earthly existence is not in most
perfect accordance with the grace and the good-
ness which distinguished alike its commence-
ment and its close ? What wretch ever applied
to him and was sent away unrelieved '? Whom

32 THE INCARNATION.

did he ever ask, by what right, or on the ground
of what merit they laid claim to his interposi-
tion in their favour / Whom did he ever reproach
with the guilt that had brought their miseries
upon them 1 If he healed the sick, and raised
the dead, if out of one he cast seven devils, and
dispossessed another of a whole legion, it was
just for the purpose of convincing you that there
is no limit either to his power or his willingness
to heal your spiritual sickness, to quicken you
from your death in sin. He asks no question
as to the past. lie asks not if you be loaded
with the sins of a few days, or with the sins of
many years. He asks not if your crimes be
few or many, slight or aggravated. They all
lie equally within the compass of his power ;
and his only question is, ;' Wilt thou be made
whole ?" If, for a moment he refused the wo-
man of Syrophenicia, it was only to teach you
the happy effect of persevering and importu-
nate prayer. If he refused her for a moment,
it was only the more emphatically to teach this
truth, that he will never refuse, — that ivlioso-
ever cometh unto him shall not be denied.

In the same manner was the holiness of God
displayed in the life of him in whom dwelt all
the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And if the
life of Christ, was just a living manifestation of
all the perfections of God, and if we know

THE INCARNATION. 33

God, just because God has dwelt in the flesh
amongst us, then is it obvious, not merely that
the Son who became our prophet to reveal unto
us the Father, must of necessity become flesh,
since in no other way that we know could he
make that revelation ; but it is not less obvi-
ously necessary that the flesh which he took
should be perfectly holy, else it is not conceiva-
ble how his life could afford us any exhibition
of the holiness of God. He might have showed
to us the holiness of a man, such as Abraham
or Moses, carried to a still higher degree of
perfection, even to the extent of avoiding all
actual transgression of the law of God. But
if his flesh was really sinful, if it even felt the
slightest propensity or inclination to sin, — an
inclination which required to be repressed, in
order to prevent it from proceeding to actual
guilt, then this propensity was itself, at least in
our view of the matter, criminal, and effectually
disqualified him for giving any practical reve-
lation of the divine holiness in his life. The in-
clination of his flesh to sinful indulgence might
be in him kept as " a spring shut up, and a
fountain sealed," from which no emanation of
actual guilt was ever permitted to proceed.
The inclination of the flesh might be so power-
fully and successfully repressed, that it might
be truly said of him in whom it dwelt, that he

34 THE INCARNATION.

" did no sin ; " but with what truth it could be
said of him, whose whole life was an unceas-
ing, however successful struggle, against the
will .of the flesh, compelling "the flesh against
its will," into however perfect a harmony with
the will of God, that he "k?ievj no sin," is alto-
gether beyond our comprehension. If such
inclination existed, however successfully sub-
dued, it existed as the germ of all actual trans-
gression,— as containing in it the elements of
all human guilt, — as the object of just wrath,
and deserved punishment, — as that which can
be rendered fit for communion with God, only
through that shedding of blood, without which
there can be no remission, and consequently
totally depriving him in whom it existed, of all
claim to the title, and of all power to accom-
plish the purposes, of a " Lamb without blem-
ish, and without spot."

But in order to see all the fulness with which
he discharged the duties resulting from his
prophetic character, and to learn from his dis-
charge of them all, the knowledge which it is
intended and fitted to convey, we must look,
not merely to his life, but still more especially
to his death. He was a prophet on the cross,
as well as a " priest on the throne," and not
the less a king on both. And whatever know-
ledge of the perfections of God wre derive from
the life of Christ, is both carried out to a great-

THE INCARNATION. 35

er extent, and taught with a more impressive
emphasis, by his death.

By his life we are taught that God is good,
and the sinner is powerfully encouraged to
come to him for pardon and for peace. But it
was on the cross that he gave the highest ex-
hibition of the Divine goodness. To all his
creatures the goodness of God was known ;
but to none of them was the infinite and in-
conceivable extent of that goodness known, till
Christ died on -the cross. When man fell,
had God freely forgiven the rebel, and by a
word restored him to perfect purity, and placed
him in a state of impeccable stability, this would
have been an act of unexampled goodness.
But as this act could by no possibility be per-
formed, without throwing doubt on the Divine
perfections, and producing the most disastrous
consequences, the next and only method which
created reason could have su^o-ested for the

oo

treatment of the rebels would be, to give up the
fallen pair to him to whose suggestions they
had listened, in opposition to the command of
God, — cut off the stream of iniquity by drying
up its source, and people the world anew with
less feeble creatures. But when they heard of
the Incarnation, when they heard that the Eter-
nal Word, who spoke the world into being, was
himself to be made flesh, and in the weakness

36 THE INCARNATION.

of flesh was to go forth into that world of which
Satan had become the god, and to meet him in
his own domain, and to contend with him and
all his powers on his own ground, and by his
own deeds and his own sufferings, to take away
the captives of the mighty, and to redeem the
prey of the terrible, and when they saw all this
actually accomplished, then had they a view of
the goodness of God, far beyond aught that
they could possibly have had before. When
they saw God willing to redeem from their
captivity, and to ransom from destruction,
creatures, whose utter and final perdition could
not have affected his happiness or glory, with
no less a price than the blood of his own well-
beloved Son, it is no matter of surprise that
they, delighted thus to be assured of the infi-
nite extent of the goodness of their God, should,
as well as the redeemed from among men,
celebrate the death of Christ, in the most ex-
alted strains of gratitude and adoration, as we
are assured by John in the Revelation that
they do, when he says, " And I beheld, and I
heard the voice of many angels round about
the throne, and the beasts, and the elders : and
the number of them was ten thousand times
ten thousand, and thousands of thousands ; say-
ing with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb
that was slain to receive power, and riches,

THE INCARNATION. 37

and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and
glory, and blessing. And every creature which
is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the
earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that
are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and hon-
our, and glory, and power unto him that sit-
teth upon the throne, and to the Lamb, for
ever and ever."* And well might the same
writer, when contemplating the goodness of
God, as it is set forth in the unspeakable value
of the price by which he purchased our safety,
thus speak of it, " In this was manifested the
love of God towards us, because that God
sent his only begotten Son into the world, that
we might live through him. Herein is love,
not that we loved God, but that he loved us,
and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our
sins."t The love of God is indeed thus mani-
fested to be something, the extent of which no
language may describe, and no heart may con-
ceive : and the redeemed of the Lord, while
throughout eternity his love flows forth to
them in an ever-increasing weight of glory and
blessedness, will feel no misgivings lest he
who thus blesseth them should grow weary in
the exercise of his love, and should come to a
limit, beyond which they shall not go in its

* Rev. v. 11. t Uohniv. 9.

4

38 THE INCARNATION.

enjoyment, while they can ever look back to
the cross of Christ, where the death of our
Prophet gave an ineffaceable and irrefragable
demonstration that the love of God is truly
boundless, exhaustless, and passing all under-
standing.

Now, we would ask, is it possible that the
life of Christ, clear, and distinct; and decisive
as are the manifestations of the love and good-
ness of God which it affords, could have mani-
fested that love and goodness, to as great an
extent, or have given so impressive and indu-
bitable a demonstration of them as that which
we derive from his death 1 Every reader will,
we suppose, answer, No. It was in his whole
life, but still more especially and emphatically,
in his death, that our great Prop..et revealed
unto us the Father. Then he died as a pro-
phet, not less than as a priest ; or, in other
words, it was from his death as a sacrifice to
expiate our sins, that we derive the highest
instruction, which, as our prophet, he came to
teach us. ' We beg our readers to keep this
observation in mind, that, even as our Prophet,
it was necessary that Christ should die, and
not less necessary that his death should be that
of an ur.fillen, sinless person.

In the meantime we go on to remark, that
this demonstration of the love of God, which

THE INCARNATION. 39

was given in the death of Christ, becomes
much more distinct and impressive, when
viewed in connection with that demonstration
of the exceedingly hateful and malignant na-
ture of sin, which was given by the same
event. When sin was first introduced into the
dominions of God, some demonstration of its
evil was given in the punishment inflicted on
the offenders. That demonstration, however,
was comparatively trifling. In them it was
not immediately punished to the full extent of
its demerit, nor consequently the full extent of
its evil shown. And had these first offenders
been at once, and frankly forgiven, could this
by any possibility have been done, it would
have afforded a comparatively trifling manifes-
tation of the grace of God. Before that grace
could be seen in all its glory, sin must be first
seen in all its malignity. And this could not
be seen merely by ihe fall of angels. One of
its most awful characteristics, their fall could
not show. We refer to its generative nature,
— its capability of being propagated from race
to race tl rough successive generations. What-
ever number of angels there were who kept not
their first state, each fell by his own personal
act, and to however many other sins that first
sin might give rise in the individual, this was
only a proof that sin once admitted into the heart

40 THE INCARNATION.

would propagate itself there ; but could give
no idea of another fact, which far more fear-
fully demonstrates the malignity of sin, name-
ly, that sin might be committed under such cir-
cumstances, as would render it just in God to
cause the poison of that sin to pass from the
actual transgressor to unnumbered millions of
other responsible creatures, connected in a par-
ticular manner with the transgressor, so as to
involve them all in his guilt and in his doom.
Till man fell, and the result of his fall was seen,
it could not be known that such was the malig-
nity of sin, that one sin of one man, was suf-
ficient to diffuse guilt and misery through all
generations of men. One sin thus committed,
under circumstances which afforded it an op-
portunity for producing all its natural and pro-
per effects, gave a much more impressive view
of its native malignity, than the fall of angels
could possibly do. Many proofs of the hate-
fulness of sin have been given, such as the
sweeping away of a guilty world by the flood,
— the sudden destruction of the " cities of the
plain," — the devotion of the Amorites to exter-
mination, when the measure of their iniquities
was full. And all the madness, and folly, and
guilt, and misery, that abound on earth, and every
sin, and every sorrow of every individual, when
viewed, as it ought always to be, in connexion

THE INCARNATION. 41

with the original source whence it sprung, are
all affecting and convincing proofs — proofs
coming home to the bosom of every man who
is capable of feeling — how " evil a thing and
bitter sin is," while they are proving that the
"evil figment" of man's heart, "the root of
bitterness," is at this day as vigorous and fresh,
and flourishing, and fruitful as it was at the
beginning ; and while they are showing how
one sin of one man, when committed under
circumstances favourable to the development
of its proper effects,, is capable of resulting in
the actual guilt and temporal suffering of all,
and in the final condemnation of many.

A.nd when this demonstration of the malig-
nity of sin has been for ages exhibited to the
examination of men and angels, when we have
seen one sin spreading its contamination over
a whole world, and over all generations of men,
and showing its poison in the production of a
guilt and misery that baffles all -calculation and
all conception, is this demonstration, over-
whelming though it be, the most painful exhi-
bition of the " exceeding sinfulness of sin,"
which God hath given to angels and to men ?
No. There is a demonstration more striking
still. His only-begotten Son is sent forth to
teach us this, among other things, that the holi-
ness of God is something far beyond all con-
4*

42 THE INCARNATION.

ception, — that his aversion to sin is wholly un-
alterable,— and that, in short, there is a hate-
fulness in sin, which we can no more compre-
hend, than we can comprehend the perfections
of God. We have seen the effects of one sin,
and these are disastrous beyond all calculation.
But the death of our Divine Prophet must be
supposed to afford a demonstration even be-
yond this, else it would not have been given.
When angels saw him, whom they were ac-
customed to worship, go forth into the world
.in the " likeness of sinful flesh" — when they
saw him take upon him the penalty due to the
sins of a lost world, — when they saw him un-
dertake to pay a debt of such incalculable mag-
nitude, they would be ready to say, surely it
is sufficient that he has had goodness enough
to undertake for these fallen creatures ! The
debt will not be, in reality exacted ; the penal-
ty will not be unsparingly inflicted upon the
only-begotten and well-beloved Son. A little
may be exacted in order to prove the reality of
his suretyship, — a little may be inflicted to
prove the reality of his substitution ; but surely
the whole will never be cither required or in-
flicted He will spare the Son. But no, not
one pang due to our guilt was withheld, not one
drop of gall which guilt had mingled in our
eup, was abstracted from. his. " The Lord

THE INCARNATION. 43

hath laid on him the iniquities of us all ; " and
he is able to forgive every sin, because there is
no sin, the bitterness resulting from which he
did not feel to the full. And this is what consti-
tutes his death so awful, and solemn, and im-
pressive a demonstration, beyond all other de-
monstrations, of the inconceivable holiness of
God, and of the unspeakable . hatefulness of
sin, that though he on whom our iniquities
were laid was the well-beloved Son, yet not
one pang due to guilt was spared him.

We have already said that the demonstra-
tion of the unspeakable grace and goodness of
God, which was given in the death of Christ,
would appear still more conspicuously when
viewed in connection with the demonstration
of the exceeding " sinfulness of sin," derived
from the same event. For if such be the hate-
fulness of sin, that, even when the Son took our
sins upon him, not one pang due to them was
spared him, then how great is the goodness of
God in providing a ransom, and such a ransom,
for creatures so deeply involved in all its pol-
lution and hatefulness ! Well might the apos-
tle say, " For scarcely for a righteous man will
one die ; yet perad venture for a good man
some would even dare to die. But God com-
mendeth his love toward us, in that, while we

44 THE INCARNATION.

were yet sinners, Christ died for us."* And
well might he also say, as he does in the same
chapter, " Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound." For if such be the ma-
lignity of sin, that one sin of one man was suf-
ficient to involve the whole human race in
guilt and condemnation, how great is that
grace of God, which forgives not one sin of
one man, but innumerable sins of innumerable
men !

As the death of a fallen and sinful creature
could be no demonstration whatever of the
grace and goodness of God, so neither could
it be any greater a demonstration of the malig-
nity of sin than our own death If then Christ
was a fallen sinful creature, if there existed in
any department of his constitution the slightest
portion of that abominable thing which God
hates, if he died merely by the " common pro-
perty of flesh to die, because it was accursed
in the loins of our first parents," or because he
had taken a portion of the " perilous stuff,"
then his death, instead of being the most awful
and solemn exhibition of the holiness of God,
and of the sinfulness of sin," which men or
angels ever saw, was just such a common ex-
hibition of these, as we have the advantage of

* Rom. v. 7.

THE INCARNATION. 45

seeing every day, in the death of other fallen
sinful creatures.

Hence then we again come to the conclu-
sion, that the death of Christ was necessary to
the full discharge of his prophetic office. He
died that he might teach us the important and
necessary lesson, that there is an inconceivable,
that is, to us, an infinite malignity in sin — that
there is in God an inconceivable holiness and
hatred of sin, — and that sin can never be for-
given without being first atoned for. And we
come also to the conclusion that this lesson
could not be taught by the death of a sinful
creature, in any higher degree than it is taught
by the death of those who are daily dying
around us, and consequently that our prophet
who died to teach us this was not a sinful
creature.

We might make similar remarks upon the
Truth and the Justice of God, from the illustra-
tions of which, given in the death of our
prophet, the same conclusion that he was not
sinful or fallen, might be drawn. We shall,
however, remark upon no other of the divine
perfections, save his Immutability, as the
knowledge of this is, in itself, most necessary,
and includes, in some measure, both his Jus-
tice and Truth. Of the existence of this per-
fection the history of the world affords many

46 THE INCARNATION.

striking illustrations. Many things occurred
to induce God, if change with him had been
possible, to change his purpose of grace and
mercy to a fallen world. The history of the
antediluvian ages shows us men, not, as might
have been expected, mourning over the dis-
mal consequences of the fall, and walking in
all the humility of deep penitence before the
God whom they had offended, and cherishing
with feelings of heartfelt gratitude the happy
hopes which he had graciously held out to
them ; but, on the contrary, devoted to every
species of wickedness, and carrying their guilt
to such an extent as to render it necessary to
sweep away the whole race. Yet even in the
infliction of this terrible judgment, he, in the
midst of wrrath, remembered mercy, and pre-
served one family, that through them the pro-
mise that the woman's seed should bruise the
serpent's head might be fulfilled, and the im-
mutability of his purpose might be manifested.
Again, when Israel was chosen, that to that
nation might be committed the " oracles of
God," and that they might be placed under a
dispensation preparatory to the coming of the
promised Messiah, how constantly did they
prove themselves to be truly a stiff-necked and
rebellious people 1 Not all the wonders which
they saw in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the

THE INCARNATION. 47

wilderness, not their own constant experience
of the happiness of obedience, and the misera-
ble consequences of rebellion, in short, nothing
could turn them away from their idolatries.
How often had God to give them into the
hands of their enemies ! But nothing could
induce him to cast them off. Their unbelief
could not make his faithfulness of none effect.
" I am Jehovah ! I change not ; therefore ye
sons of Jacob are not consumed." Notwith-
standing all their provocations, therefore, they
were still preserve. I till the promise was ful-
filled, and the " Consolation of Israel" sent.

And even now, that for the rejection of the
Messiah, they have been for many ages sifted
like wheat among all nations, still the same
immutability which performed former pro-
mises, will fulfil that which teacheth us to
hope, that the veil shall yet be taken away
from the hearts of that people, when Israel
shall turn unto the Lord and be saved.

That God persevered, in the accomplish-
ment of a purpose which every thing in the
history of the world in general, and of his own
chosen people in particular, strongly provoked
him to abandon, is a great and impressive
proof of his immutability. But a still greater
was wanted, and the greatest that can possibly
be conceived is given in the death of Christ.

48 THE INCARNATION.

When all our iniquities were laid on him, and
the penalty of them all was exacted of him,
will not God relax a little of the firmness of
his purpose ? When he beholds the agonies
which rend his spotless soul with unutterable
anguish, when he hears his strong cryings, and
sees his tears, and the shrinking and shudder-
ing of nature, not at the thought of death, but
of that hour and power of darkness by which
death was preceded, when the malice of men,
and the power of Satan, and the curse of a
broken law, were all let loose against him, will
not God, under such circumstances as these,
relent in favour of his well-beloved Son .' Will
he not interfere to confound the malice of men,
to wither up the power of Satan, to abate the
demands of the law ? Will he not now change,
or at least somewhat modify the purpose which
declared that thus it must be ? No. He will
not change now, and thus gives the most deci-
sive proof that never on any occasion can he
change. Even when the pains of hell got hold
of his well-beloved Son, and the sorrows of
death encompassed him around, and he found
trouble and sorrow such as mortal man may
never adequately conceive, yet God maniiested
no variableness and no shadow of turning. If
he had, what would have been the conse-
quence ? A God capable of change, and go-

THE INCARNATION. 49

verning by a law which had been violated, with-
out its demands being fully satisfied, and its
penalty fully inflicted, would have been the
object presented to the view of angels, and an
object which, it is obvious, they could never
have contemplated without terror and alarm.
Never was immutability put to such an awful
test, and never was result so glorious, and never
coul'd conviction be deeper than that which was
impressed upon the hosts of heaven, that in
God they could never henceforth dread any
change. And the powers of darkness know
that God, who withdrew not his well-beloved
Son from one pang that the imputed guilt of an
apostate world entitled them to inflict upon him,
tmtil he was enabled to say, " It is finished," is
a God who cannot change. And the believer in
Jesus knows that the God who gave up his
Son to die for him, is a God who cannot
change, and rejoices to know that if God hath
chosen him to salvation: through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth, there is
then nothing in heaven above, or in hell be-
neath, that can separate him from the love of
God which is in Christ Jesus. And let the
thoughtless, heedless, careless sinner know,
that God can never change ; that his threaten-
ings are as unalterable as his promises. He
is pleasing himself, it may be, in some vague,

50 THE INCARNATION.

undefined, and unfounded reliance in the un-
covenanted mercies of God ; and is soothing
down the alarms of conscience by saying —
God is merciful. And merciful he is, beyond
what heart can conceive, but merciful to those
only who seek his mercy in the appointed way.
He thinks perhaps that a few prayers and
tears wrung from him at the last trying hour,
may prevail on a being so merciful, to save
him from the fearful and irreversible doom de-
nounced against sinners. But look to the cross-
of Christ. He spared not his own Son, and
will he spare thee, as if he loved thec better
than him? He abated not one iota of the de-
mands of the law in the case of his own well-
beloved Son, and will he abate its demands for
thee ? With unchanging and unaltering pur--
pose he said of him, " Awake, Oh sword,
against my shepherd, and against the man that
is my fellow." And hopest thou that the sword
that was made so sharp to him, shall be sheath-
ed for thee ? Thou hopest for impossibilities.
Away with the delusive, the destructive hope,
and flee to him in whom alone safely is to be
found.

Again, then, we come to the conclusion, that
Christ died as our Prophet, that lie might re-
veal to us, among other things, the immutabi-
lity of God. For his death put that immuta-

t* THE INCARNATION. 51

bility to a test which proves this characteristic
to be truly infinite, and which can leave to
neither the sinner nor the saint, the fallen
angels, nor those that surround his throne,
either the hope, or the fear of change. And
again we also conclude, that to him, from
whose death wTe learn the immutability of
God, the terms fallen, and sinful, never could,
with truth, be applied. For where was the
mighty test of immutability in giving up such
a being to death 1 Or what could we have
learned of the character of God at all from his
death, more than from the death of other men?
We can produce the most irresistible proof of
every particular in this proposition, — " God is
a Spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable, in
being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, good-
ness, and truth ? But remove the cross of
Christ, from which alone the proof is derived,
or make it the cross of a fallen, sinful man,
and we are again plunged into all the uncer-
tainty of those speculations upon the being and
attributes of God, the only effect of which has
been to show, that unaided reason could never
draw any satisfactory conclusion upon the sub-
ject, from the kingdom either of nature or of
providence — that as the sun can be discovered
only by his own light, so God can be known
only by his own revelation.

52 THE INCARNATION.

I have dwelt the longer on the prophetic
office of Christ, for the purpose of showing
that to the due discharge of the duties peculiar
to that office, his death, and, consequently, his
Incarnation, was not less necessary, than for
the purpose of making atonement for sin, or
for the discharge of the duties of his sacerdo-
tal office. To the latter our attention is com-
monly more particularly directed, when speak-
ing of the Incarnation and death of our
Redeemer.

I have dwelt the longer on his prophetic
character too, for the purpose of leading us to
a principle which it is of the utmost impor-
tance to keep constantly in view, in all discus-
sions on such topics, and indeed in all theolo-
gical discussions, namely, that, in Christ, the
prophetic, sacerdotal, and regal offices were
never divided. His every act must be viewed
in its prophetic, sacerdotal, and regal aspects,
before its full importance can be seen. This
principle I shall take some pains to establish.
But it will be more easily done when I have
made such remarks as the subject requires on
the other offices of Christ.

Let us not, in passing, neglect the more strik-
ing and important practical bearings of this
subject. I have already had occasion to show,
that the death of our Prophet very distinctly

THE INCARNATION. 53

teaches us, that such is the goodness of God,
that there is no extent of guilt which he is not
willing to pardon, and, therefore, that there is
no sinner who may not venture to come to the
throne of grace. I have also shown how the
same event proves, that to hope for salvation,
excepting through an union with Christ, is to
hope that God will overturn the whole princi-
ples of his moral government, and render the
whole scheme of redemption, and all that it
cost the Saviour to accomplish it, a mere nul-
lity ; and that, for the purpose of sparing the
sinner the trouble of denying himself, and
abandoning his sins. I would now further re-
mark, that the death of our Prophet distinctly
teaches us to what extent our obedience to God
must be carried. His command is, that we
should be ready to lay down our lives for the
brethren, and should l resist even unto blood,
striving against sin.' His own practice goes
to the full extent of his precept. He obeyed
even unto death. He has thus cut off every
excuse that can possibly be made for a limited
obedience.

Whether then we look to the communication
of theological truth, or to the illustration and
enforcement of practical principle, it is plain
that our instruction would have been altogether
defective, had not our Prophet died. Had his
5*

54 THE INCARNATION.

obedience been limited to something short of
death, then we would have felt encourged to
s.et a limit, and that a much narrower limit, to
our own obedience. But if even death, in its
most fearful form, did not authorize the Son to
decline from the path of obedience, then his
every pang impresses upon our hearts the
lesson, that when God commands, there is no
plea, however plausible, that can possibly be
admitted as an excuse for neglecting to obey ;
that though obedience should lead us through
a fiery furnace, or a lion's den, the example of
him who obeyed through sufferings more fear-
ful by far than either, infallibly assures us, that
no argument can apologize for our turning back
when God calls us to go forward. When a
man begins to inquire, not how he may most
effectually obey God, but within how narrow
limits he may venture to contract his obedi-
ence ; when he begins to ask, not what is right,
but what is expedient, let him look to the cross
of Christ, and either renounce such principles,
or renounce the name of Christian.

CHRIST OUR PRIEST.

Let us now direct our attention to the Sa-
cerdotal office. The great duties of a priest
are to make atonement for the sins of the peo-
ple, and to offer up intercessions for them. It

THE INCARNATION. 55

is clearly necessary that he who thus appears
before God, in behalf of the people, must him-
self be perfectly holy. Under the law no per-
son could be found possessed of this perfect
holiness, but the utmost care was taken to
render the Levitical High Priest, as far as
possible, a striking type of Christ in this re-
spect. He was required to be perfectly free
from all bodily defect and deformity. He was
to be born of a mother who had been, not a
widow, but a virgin, when married to his fa-
ther. He was consecrated to his office by
ceremonies of the most solemn kind. He
wore upon his forehead a golden plate, on
which was graven, " like the engravings of a
signet, HOLINESS TO THE LORD." He was not
permitted to mourn, as other men, for those
that died, nor to contract any ceremonial un-
cleanness even for his father or his mother.
And on the great day of atonement, when he
entered into the sanctuary, he prepared him-
self for the solemnity, by offering first an atone-
ment for himself. Thus the utmost degree of
ceremonial holiness was conferred upon him,
that he might be a type of the immaculate
holiness of our great High Priest.

That Christ made atonement for his people,
and intercedes for them, we need not stop to
prove. But there are two points upon which

56 THE INCARNATION.

a few remarks are necessary — the one is, that
wherever atonement is made, it is made by
sacrificial blood-shedding ; and the other is,
that to offer this sacrifice was the peculiar
province of the priest. In proof of the first of
these positions, we might refer to the whole
Levitical ceremony. We might go still farther
back, and refer to the sacrifice of Abel, as a
proof that expiatory sacrifice was instituted by
God, from the beginning. At present, how-
ever, we shall produce only two texts, which
seem sufficiently decisive on the subject. In
Leviticus, xvii. 2, it is thus written, " The life
of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given
it to you upon the altar to make an atonement
for your souls ; for it is the blood that maketh
atonement for the soul" And in Hebrews, ix.
22, it is declared that — " without shedding of
blood is no remission." Hence the blood of
the covenant has flowed through every age,
and has been the hope of the saints — the sym-
bol of the promised seed, through all gene-
rations.

Neither will it be necessary to dwell on our
second position, that none save the priest could
present this atoning sacrifice. This is very
plainly declared in Hebrews, v. 1. "For every
high priest taken from among men, is ordained
for men in things pertaining to God, that he

THE INCARNATION. 57

may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins." It
is sufficiently proved too, by the ceremonies on
the great day of atonement. On that day the
priest appeared, in the most solemn manner, in
the sanctuary before the Lord, on behalf of the
people, nor, we suppose, will any one doubt
that, had any other person offered to do this,
he would have paid for his temerity with his
life. No man might take " this honour to him-
self, but he that was called of God, as was
Aaron." And the guilt of assuming this office,
without such a call, was fearfully exemplified
in the awful fate of Korah and his company,
whose censors, after they had gone down alive
into the pit were beaten into plates for a cov-
ering to the altar, " to be a memorial to the
children of Israel that no stranger, who is not
of the seed of Aaron, come near to offer in-
cense, and by parity of reasoning, to offer
sacrifice — before the Lord ; that he be not as
Korah, and as his company." The same thing
is exemplified in the case of Saul, whoi under
trying enough circumstances, said, " I forced
myself, and offered a burnt-offering," by which
Samuel declared that he had completed the
guilt which lost him the kingdom. The case
of Uzziah affords distinct proof of the same
thing. But it is unnecessary to multiply proofs
on a subject so plain ; for the very institution of

58 THE INCARNATION.

the prie^thcod is a sufficient proof of our posi-
tion, since, if any man might offer expiatory
sacrifices, that institution was useless.

These hints may serve for the present on a
point, which, we trust, few of our readers are
disposed to call in question, that where there
is atonement there is sacrifice, and where there
is sacrifice there is a priest to offer it. If, then,
Christ made atonement for sin, he made that
atonement by sacrifice ; and if he offered a
sacrifice then was he a priest, not a priest elect,
to be anointed to his office at some future pe-
riod, but a priest already possessed of all the
dignity and of all the prerogatives of the priest-
hood at the moment when the sacrifice was
offered.

We have already stated, that the Priest who
offered an atoning sacrifice, must of necessity,
be perfectly holy, ceremonially so under the
law, since really so, none could possibly be. It
is to be observed also, that the victim offered
was likewise required to be perfect in its kind,
without blemish or spot, else it could not be
accepted. " Cursed be the deceiver, that hath
in his flock a male, and voweth and sacrificeth
to the Lord a corrupt thing ; for I am a great
King, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is
dreadful among the heathen."

Both as the victim offered, then, and as the

THE INCARNATION. 59

Priest who offered it, it was necessary that
Christ should possess all the perfection of holi-
ness,— a holiness not resulting from a success-
ful resistance of the motions of sin in the flesh f
but a holiness resulting from the total absence
of any such motions. For an inclination to sin,
however successfully resisted, and however
completely repressed from going forth into ac-
tual transgression, is itself criminal, and totally
incompatible with the holiness of the " Lamb of
God, which taketh away the sins of the world."
If such inclination was in Christ, then was he
•under the same necessity as the Levitical high-
priest, to prepare himself for appearing before
the Lord, by offering first a sacrifice for his
own sins. The holiness of him, therefore, who,
"through the eternal Spirit, offered himself
without spot to God," was not a holiness that
resulted from a successful repression of the
sinful inclinations of the flesh, or from a suc-
cessful overccm ng of the renitency of the hu-
man will against the Divine will ; but from the
total absence of any such inclinations, or such
renitency in the MAN anointed in the moment
of conception, with all the plenitude of the Holy
Ghost. Had he been, in any manner, or to any
degree, involved in the guilt of men, he could
not have substituted himself in the room of
guilty men, but must have died for his own
guilt.

60 THE INCARNATION.

Christ then was really and truly a Priest;—
an unfallen and sinless Priest. He had a life
which was strictly his own, which he could, by
no law, be required either to assume, or to lay
down ; a life which, in this respect, differed
essentially from the life of every created being;
for no created being assumes life, but receives
it at the will of God, without the possibility of
giving his own previous consent to its reception,
and without the possibility of having or of acquir-
ing any right to dispose of that life as he pleas-
es. Christ thus having a human life differing
from the life of every created being', had power
to lay it down at his own pleasure, and in any
manner that he might think proper. He did
lay it down, and his death was really and truly
an atonement. It was the payment of our debt,
the ransom of our redemption, the endurance
of our penalty, the price by which we were
purchased, the removal of the wrath of God
from us, by its transference to our substitute.
This atonement was demanded by all the attri-
butes of the Divine character, all of which are
gloriously illustrated by it- It was demanded
by the interests of all the rational family of God,
which would have been involved in dismay and
ruin, had sin been pardoned without that proof
of its unalterable hatefalness in the sight of
God, which the atonement alone could furnish.

THE INCARiNATION. 61

By the atonement, Christ has laid a ground
for an intercession which must always be ef-
fectual, so that the prayer of faith offered unto
God through him, can never fail to be heard.
" For Christ is not entered into the holy places
made with hands, which are the figures of the
true ; but into heaven itself, now to appear in
the presence of God for us."

The most important duty, and that which we
most clearly and obviously owe to our great
High Priest, is to renounce every self-righteous
thought, and every self-dependent feeling, and
account the pardon of our sins, and eternal life
as solely the free gift of God through him.
That every deed of righteousness that we do,
is not one of the causes, but one of the effects
of our justification, is a truth of the very utmost
importance ; and a truth which may perhaps
be most satisfactorily proved by considering
some of the most common objections that are
opposed to it-

It is objected to the doctrine that we are jus-
tified solely by the atonement made by Christ,
that no necessary connection can be discovered
between the pardon of a guilty person, and the
death of an innocent one ; nor can any one ex-
plain how the latter can be the cause of the for-
mer. To this it may be answered — and the
answer is a complete counterpoise to the ob-
6

62 THE INCARNATION.

jection, — that there is just as little connection,
that we can see, between pardon and repen-
tance, or between pardon and any thing else
that may be considered as its cause, as between
pardon and atonement. Both the objection and
the answer are particular instances of a univer-
sal truth, which is, that no'necessary connection
is discoverable by us between any two events,
which, nevertheless, we are accustomed to con-
sider as cause and effect. God has established
a connection between the atonement of Christ,
and the pardon of the believer ; and what, be-
sides the fiat of the Almighty, is requisite to
establish a connection between any two things '?
or what else has made any one thing in the
universe to be the cause of any other thing 1
If, therefore, we could see no reason why the
pardon of sin is communicated through the ex-
piatory sacrifice of Jesus Christ, — no necessity
whatever for atonement, yet, when the fact is
revealed to us by God, that we can be pardoned
only through a crucified Redeemer, it would
become us, as offending creatures, depending
altogether on the mercy of God, to receive the
annunciation with all humility and gratitude.
But when God has graciously permitted us to
see, in part at least, the absolute necessity of
atonement, and some of the important moral
purposes answered by it, it is worse than fool-

THE INCARNATION. 63

ish to find fault with this method of communi-
cating pardon.

When it is said that God is willing to par-
don us upon our repentance, without any atone-
ment, it is taken for granted that we can repent
when we please. For if repentance be some-
thing entirely out of our power, then it can
afford us no comfort to tell us, even if it were
true, that repentance will purchase our pardon.
And I know not that even the most determined
rationalism has ever promulgated a tenet more
clearly absurd, or more decidedly opposed to
all experience, than the tenet that a man can
repent of himself, without being led and enabled
to do so by ihe Holy Spirit. Many a sinner is,
no doubt, soothing himself to peace by the pro-
mise of a future repentance. But he neither
knows as yet what repentance is, nor his own
need of it, else he would build himself up in no
such foolish delusion. For what does the sin-
ner do, when he promises himself a future re-
pentance ? He just says, To-day, nothing shall
induce me to abstain from indulging every
appetite and every desire ; nothing shall lead
me to think of God at all, or to think of him
without dread and aversion ; nothing can make
me delight to contemplate his perfections, or
find any pleasure in drawing near to him ; to-
morrow, I will sit down and mourn, in the ut°

64 THE INCARNATION.

most anguish of spirit, those indulgences from
which nothing shall induce me to-day to abstain,
and wish a thousand times that I had never
yielded to them ; nothing shall give me such
delight as the contemplation of those glorious
perfections which, to-day, I hate to think of ;
and I shall account nothing such a privilege
as to draw near to that throne of grace, before
which nothing shall induce me, to-day, to bend
the knee. This is exactly what the sinner
says, when he promises himself a future re-
pentance. He promises that to-morrow he
will hate with the most cordial detestation, that
to which, to-day, he clings with the most ardent
affection. He who says, To-day I am bowed
down with all the weight of three score years
and ten, but to-morrow I am resolved that I
shall flourish in all the vigour of unbroken
youth, forms a resolution quite as rational, and
quite as much within his power to accomplish,
as he who says, to-morrow I will repent. Re-
pentance and renovation are not sacrifices
which we give to God, as the price of our
justification ; but gifts which God bestows upon
us, and which God only can bestow, in conse-
quence of our having been freely justified,
through the atonement of our Priest.

But the grand objection to the doctrine of
atonement is, that it is hostile to the interests

THE INCARNATION. 65

of morality. It is said, that to tell a man that
he is justified, not by his obedience to the law
of God, but solely by the merits of our great
High Priest, is to cut the very sinews of ex-
ertion ; to place a pillow beneath the head of
the sluggard ; to spread a couch for the re-
pose of indolence ; to take away the most pow-
erful motives to diligence in doing good, and
to steadfastness in resisting temptation. It is
very natural, say such objectors, for a man to
reason thus. As my justification depends not
at all on my own holiness, therefore it is un-
necessary for me to put myself to the pain and
trouble of cultivating holiness. I need take no
care, since I have a sufficient surety to answer
for all my failures. That some men should
be found who turn the grace of God into las-
civiousness, is what any one acquainted with
human nature would be prepared to expect.
But the Gospel is not responsible for the er-
rors of those who pervert it to their own de-
struction. No truth is more certain, than that
the promotion of holiness is the great end of
all that Christ has done and suffered for us, —
that to raise man from his state of moral weak-
ness and degradation, and to lead him to the
perfection of his moral nature, is the grand
purpose, as far as we are concerned, for which
the great plan of our redemption was devised,
6*

66 THE INCARNATION.

and carried into execution. But the atonement
is not only not hostile to this purpose, but fur-
nishes the only means by which it can be ac-
complished. It will be granted, that religion
consists in regarding our Maker with all those
feelings which his perfections are calculated to
inspire ; or, as the sacred writers emphatically
call it, having the " heart right with God." To
believe in the being of God is the first article
in religion ; and to know his nature is the first
step toward religious perfection. Consequent-
ly, whatever tends most effectually to instruct
us as to the character of God, and most deeply
to impress upon our hearts a sense of his glo-
rious perfections, must also most effectually
tend to produce holiness. Now, which of the
two has the clearer and more impressive view
of the divine character — he who believes in
the atonement, or he who considers it unneces-
sary? In the death of Christ, viewed as a
sacrifice for sin, the one sees the holiness of
God, and the " exceeding sinfulness of sin" so
awfully displayed, that he can conceive of no-
thing else which could display them so strongly
or convince him of them so deeply — that, in
his view, not even the destruction of the whole
human race could, in so awful and impressive
a manner, manifest the holiness of God, and
the utter and inconceivable hatefulness of sin,

THE INCARNATION. 67

as the humiliation and death of the Son of God.
In the death of Christ, the other sees no such
sacrifice, nor any manifestation whatever of the
holiness of God, or of the evil of sin; and he
would tell us that the deluge, the destruction
of Sodom, or the final perdition of any one
human being, is, beyond all comparison, a more
awful proof of the hatefulness of sin, than the
death of Christ. Is it possible, then, that the
latter can have as deep and impressive a view
of the holiness of God, as the former ; or have
his heart so effectually aroused to a dread of
sin, and a sense of its malignity ?

Again : with regard to love to God, that im-
portant principle of morality, what can be so
well calculated to awaken it, as a belief in the
doctrine of atonement 1 " We love him, be-
cause he first loved us ;" and it is in the atone-
ment that we witness the exhibition of a love
ineffable and inconceivable. He who, awaken-
ed to a sense of his guilt, has felt himself ready
to sink under its insupportable weight, and has
found safety and peace in the blood of the
" Lamb that was slain," finds himself totally
unable to express his sense of the mercy of
God, in providing such a ransom for his of-
fending creatures. It is in the very God
against whom he has rebelled, that he finds
his help ; and a life devoted to his service is

68 THE INCARNATION.

the necessary consequence of that supreme
gratitude and affection which have been im-
planted in his heart. Who will love God most?
He who sees him providing a way by which
pardon may be granted, while we are placed
in a situation in which pardon was so difficult,
that without the shedding of blood there could
be no remission? — or he who only considers
him as pardoning while there was no obstacle
whatever to the granting of that pardon 1

And who will regard the law of God with
the greatest respect, — he who considers its
claims as so limited, that he is fully able to
satisfy them, or he who considers it as so pure
and so extensive, that he only looks forward to
conformity to it, as the completion of his sal-
vation and the perfection of his nature? He
who considers every deed of righteousness
which he performs, as so much of the labour
accomplished which is to purchase heaven for
him, and for which he looks on God as his
debtor ; or he who considers it as a new step
gained in his progress to perfection, and a new
ground of gratitude to God ? In every view
which can be taken of the subject, the law
appears to be " made void," not by the man
who sets it aside as the ground of justification,
because he has so high an idea of its sanctity,
that he considers justification, and all the bless-

THE INCARNATION. 69

ings connected with it, as so many means
adopted to produce conformity to the law ; but
by him who considers it only as a means for
attaining a further end ; and a means, too,
which we are perfectly capable of employing.
The end of the one is to be justified, and con-
formity to the law the means by which it is to
be accomplished. The end of the other is to
be renewed after the image of his Maker, in
righteousness and true holiness ; and justifica-
tion is only one of the means by which that end
is to be attained. The one obeys that he may
be justified ; the other obeys because he has
been justified. Much has been forgiven him ;
therefore he loveth much. Upon what possi-
ble ground, then, can he who denies the atone-
ment, triumph over him who adopts it 1 or talk
of his regard for the interests of morality, after
he has degraded holiness from its lofty situa-
tion as the very end of our being, the end for
which we were created and redeemed, into the
rank of a means for the attainment of some
further and more important object? Or how
can he pretend that he is exalting the dignity
of human nature, who contends for the debas-
ing doctrine, that if the dread of punishment be
removed, there is no longer any sufficient mo-
tive to the cultivation of holiness ?

The first and most sacred duty which we

70 THE INCARNATION.

owe to Christ as our Priest, is, to consider the
pardon of our sins as resulting solely from his
work as our Priest, — as freely granted ante-
cedently to any holiness that we do or can
possess, and consequently as being in no sense,
and to no degree, the effect of that holiness.
And this belief, so far from being hostile to the
interests of morality, affords the only ground
upon which the principles of morality can be
securely built ; as it makes holiness not the
means to some further attainment, but the ulti-
mate attainment, the final perfection of man ;
and as it not only furnishes the only effectual
means for the successful cultivation of holiness,
but sets before us motives for its cultivation of
a more impressive urgency, than any thing
else that we can conceive possibly could do.

Another duty which we owe to our Priest
is to consider him as the ONLY Priest, through
whom we can have access to God, or receive
any blessing from him. Christ hath, " by one
offering, perfected for ever them that are sanc-
tified," and if there can be no more offering for
sin, then there can be no other priest : and if
the death of Christ was perfectly sufficient for
our justification, then nothing needs to be add-
ed to it. In this respect the Church of Rome
is grievously guilty. But upon this subject,
where it would be easier to write a volume

THE INCARNATION. 71

than a page, I am not called to enter. With-
out looking to the errors of others, I would urge
upon my reader seriously to consider, whether
an error of the same kind do not exist in his
own heart. Self-righteousness is not so much
a speculative error embraced by a particular
church, as a practical error derived from the
depravity of the heart, whatever may be the
creed believed. There is always a tendency
to substitute something in ourselves, in part at
least, as the ground of that grace which can be
derived from our great High Priest alone, a
tendency which manifests itself in a great va-
riety of ways, and which must b3 sedulously
guarded against as dishonouring to Christ.

Another duty which we owe to our great
High Priest, is to live up to our privileges ; and
that both as it regards our advancement in the
spiritual life, and our enjoyment of spiritual plea-
sure. The Christian life is essentially a progres-
sive thing. Nothing can be a greater mistake
than the opinion which seems to be entertained
by many, that when a man has once reason to
think himself a Christian, no farther improve-
ment in his character can be expected, or needs
to be sought after ; that there can be no rea-
son why he should possess a stronger faith, or
more lively hope, or a larger measure, or a
more active exercise, of all Christian graces,

72 THE INCARNATION.

when he is forty years of age, than when h^
was thirty. He who entertains such a notion
has abundant reason to doubt whether he knows
any thing about the Christian life. Christ
" died that he might redeem us from all our
iniquities," and he entered into heaven, there
to appear before God in order to procure for
us, and bestow upon us, all the grace and all
the power necessary to enable us to make our
path " as the shining light, which shineth more
and more unto the perfect day." And how can
we pretend to be his disciples at all. or with
what feelings can we hope to meet himr if we
can permit days, and months, and years, to
pass away, without even calling upon him at
all, or calling upon him only in a formal and
feeble manner, for the exercise of his sacerdo-
tal office on our behalf; and are living as if,
so far as we are concerned, it were a matter
of no consequence whether Christ be or be
not a Priest, — whether he do, or do not pos-
sess the power of procuring for us every thing
necessary to enable us to go on from grace to
grace, and from strength to strength, till we
appear perfect before God in Zion. Salvation
is looked upon as something to be obtained and
enjoyed in a future state, and to be seriously
sought for, only when we can engage in world-
ly concerns no longer ; not as something which

THE INCARNATION. 73

it is the first concern of man to obtain, and the
possession of which alone is able to carry us
comfortably through all the duties and trials of
life. This is exactly as if the rebel should say,
that when actually brought to the scaffold, it
would then be time enough to think of the
effectual mediator offered to him ; or as if the
sick man should say that he would enjoy his
disease as long as possible, and then when
death seemed inevitable, would apply to the
physician who could, and who alone could
certainly heal him.

. The Christian life ought to be, because
Christ has amply provided the means by which
it may be made, a life of alacrity and joy. It
is not more the privilege than the duty of the
Christian, to "rejoice always." He can look
upon that rich field of privilege and of promise
placed before him in the Bible, and can say
that it is all his own. And where is the want
that the blessed fruits of that, field cannot sup-
ply, the distress which they cannot relieve, the
wound that they cannot heal, the fear that they
cannot quell, or the sorrow for which they do
not furnish abundant consolation. Friend of
Jesus, why weepest thou ? If you have " an
Advocate with the Father," through whom your
sins are all forgiven, and you are made a child
of God ; and the Holy Ghost is given you as
7

74 THE INCARNATION".

your sanctifier and comforter ; and you are as~
sured of having Almighty power for your sup-
port, and unerring wisdom for your guide, and
heaven for your eternal' home, what can over-
balance or suppress the joy which naturally
results from such privileges as these ? Trials
we may, we must meet with ; but can these
depress us, when we know that " our light
affliction which is but for a moment, worketh
for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight
of glory ?" If tried by bodily pain, we should
just feel more keenly the happiness of the hope
which anticipates the time when we shall have
" a building of God, a house not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens." Worldly loss-
es will not overwhelm us, if we know that we
are undoubted heirs of an " inheritance that is
incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not
away." Friends may change ; but we will be
comforted by the assurance that in Christ we
have a " brother born for adversity," nay, " a
friend that sticketh closer than a brother."
There rolls between us and our Father's house,
the deep and restless tide of this world's cor-
ruption, through which we must of necessity
pass, and the deeper and more dangerous tide
of the corruptions of our hearts, and we are
surrounded by enemies on every side ; and
when we feel our own weakness, wre may be

THE INCARNATION. 75

ready to fear lest we should one day fall by
the hand of some of them. But every distress-
ing fear is removed when we recollect that we
" shall not be tempted beyond what we are able
to bear," and that, in point of fact, there is no
limit to our power, for we " can do all things
through Christ strengthening us," and that the
life that is in us is the life of Christ, a life
which no power can extinguish in any one of
Christ's members, any more than it can extin-
guish it in our glorious Head.

In every thing, therefore, does it become the
Christian to give thanks, — even for those tri-
als which call into exercise, and thus strengthen
his graces ; for though " no chastening for the
present seemeth joyous, but grievous ; never-
theless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit
of righteousness to them that are exercised
thereby." The Christian can therefore "glory
in tribulation," well knowing .that when he
comes to the end of his course, and looks back,
on all his blessings, and on all his trials, when
he sings of mercy, he will see reason to sing
of judgment too. But when we drag on hea-
vily, as if there were disheartening difficulties
to be met, arid heavy penalties to be endured,
at every step, we bring up an evil report upon
the good land ; and make the world believe
thai we serve a harsh master, who demands

76 THE INCARNATION.

much while he gives little ; and confirm the
too readily adopted notion, that religion is a
dull and gloomy thing, the < eath of all plea-
sure, and the grave of all enjoyment. And if
we go to the discharge of every duty, as if
there were a " lion in the way," and go to
meet trial and temptation with feelings like
those with which Saul went from Endor to
Gilboa, what but discomfiture can we expect,
when we engage under the depressing influ-
ence of anticipated defeat ? We are invited
to come, and that even " with boldness, to the
throne of grace." If indeed, we depended for
obtaining the petitions that we make, upon our
own merits, and might ask nothing but what we
deserve, then it would be useless to go to a
throne of grace, or to take the name of God
into our lips at all ; since we have deserved
only wrath. But if our petitions be founded
on the merits of Christ, then we can ask no-
thing [that he has not deserved, and nothing
that, if it be really good for us, he is not will-
ing to bestow. In this case, to come to God
with fear and hesitation, to limit our petitions
to small matters, because we feel that we have
no claim to ask larger, or to make our own
merits in any degree, the measure of our accept-
ance, or to ask as if God would grudge what
he bestows — in all this we are just dishonour'

THE INCARNATION. 77

ing our great High Priest, and living far be-
neath the privileges which he bestows upon
us. To consider religion as being our busi-
ness, but the world as the source from which
we must draw our pleasures — to approach God
in prayer as a duty which it is right, and proper,
and profitable to perform, but without any feel-
ing of its being a privilege which it is delight-
ful to enjoy, — to come to him as a Judge
whose good will it is our interest to conciliate,
without being able to look upon him as a Father
whose powrer, and riches, and kindness, it gives
us pleasure lo contemplate and celebrate, and
whose approving smile, the light of whose
countenance, is a greater treasure than corn
and wine, and oil, — is to take a view of that
communion to which God calleth us, and of the
privileges which he has conferred upon us, that
must greatly mar both our peace, and our
progress in the Christian life. While there-
fore every thing approaching to presumption,
or to that affected familiarity with God which
some appear .to mistake for filial confidence, is
to be guarded against with the most sedulous
care ; with equal care ought we to guard
against that distrust of our High Priest which
makes us dread to exercise and to enjoy, with
the most perfect confidence and freedom, the
privileges which in Christ Jesus we possess.
7*

78 THE INCARNATION.

CHRIST OUR KING.
I proceed now to the consideration of our
Lord's regal offices ; and here it will be seen
that his death, and consequently his incarnation
was essentially necessary to the due discharge
of his functions as a King. From eternity he
was Lord over all. He possessed, in common
with the other persons of the Godhead, power
to sustain and bless his true worshippers, and
to involve his enemies in destruction. But, as
Mediator, he was the Father's servant, and
could obtain no kingdom which he did not first
gain by victory, — could not be the Saviour of
men till he had conquered men's foes, and could
not be Lord of all things visible and invisible,
for the purpose of effectually securing the sal-
vation of his people, till he had first purchased
this dignity, by a full and faithful discharge of
the duties imposed upon him, and by him un-
dertaken in the covenant entered into between
him and the Father. A kingdom was given
unto the Son by the Father, — a kingdom which
he will continue to hold until the mystery of
redemption be finished, when he shall again
give up the kingdom, that God may be "all
in all."

From the beginning, then, was 'Christ a king,
and as a king did he come to exhibit himself in
the world. When he was anointed with the

THE INCARNATION. 79

fulness of the Holy Ghost, he was anointed as
a king, not less than as a prophet and priest.
In proof of this, we would refer to the forty-
Jjfth Psalm. There Christ's prophetic charac-
ter is first referred to when it is said, " Grace
is poured into thy lips : therefore God hath
blessed thee for ever," and then follows a
splendid description of his regal power and
authority. In the twenty-second Psalm also,
his prophetic and royal characters are so min-
gled as to render it impossible to suppose that
the one of these could commence at, one period,
and the other at another. In the hundred and
tenth Psalm, his regal character is, in the same
way, combined with his priesthood, leading ir-
resistibly to the conclusion that all these char-
acters he adopted, that to all these offices was
he anointed, at one and the same time. The
prophet Daniel too has determined an appointed
time " to anoint the most holy." But the pro-
phet has taken no notice whatever of a variety
of anointings at different times. But if Christ
was, in reality, to be anointed at different times,
and for different purposes, then the statement
of the prophet is not only defective, but tends
to mislead.

That Christ was a king at his coming into
the world, is proved by the fact, that the first
specific character under which he is presented

60 THE 1NC1RNATION.

to us in the New Testament, is that of a king.

7 O

" Now, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of
Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold
there carne wise men from the east to Jerusa-
lem, Saying, where is he that is born king of the
Jews?" Now, when these men were led by
the Holy Spirit from a far country to proclaim
the birth of this king, and when they must have
come to worship him, not merely as king of the
Jews, a person in whom they could have no
concern, but as that generally expected king,
who, arising in Judea, was to obtain the domin-
ion of the world, who was to be the salvation
of God to all the ends of the earth." — " a light
to lighten the Gentiles, as well as the glory of
Israel," — a king the expectation of whose com-
ing was so general, that the flatterers of Ves-
pasian professed to find the fulfilment of the
prophecy in him, upon what possible ground
can it be rationally maintained that the person
so distinctly announced as the long-promised
king, was in reality at that time no king at all,
nor to be made a king till after his death ?

Again, when our Saviour entered into the
temple, which the Jews were making a house
of merchandise, and when, " having made a
scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of
the temple, and the sheep and the oxen ; and
poured out the changer's money, and overthrew

THE INCARNATION. 81

the tables ; and said unto them that sold doves,
take these things hence ; make not my Father's
house a house of merchandise ;" he was surely,
in thus purging the temple, not only assuming to
himself both a sacerdotal and royal prerogative,
but was giving a most unequivocal manifestation
of his royal authority. For who is this who not
only utters so unpleasant a command, but who
so imperiously compels an instantaneous obedi-
ence to it? Is this the carpenter's son, the de-
spised Nazarene, the obscure peasant of the
polluted land of Gallilee of the Gentiles ? A s-
suredly, no. Had he appeared in the temple
in no other character !,han this, and attempted
such a purgation of it, he would at once have
been stoned to death, or torn to pieces. It is
clear that they who submitted thus to be driven
from the temple, which they had converted into
an exchange, who, without daring to resist, saw
even their money poured out, beheld in him,
who thus drove them away, the unequivocal
manifestations of a majesty that was not to be
opposed, — of a regal authority and power, that
might not for a moment brook resistance. He
was then claiming to himself the honour and
the submission due to a king, and as assuredly
and as fully possessed that character then, as
he does now.

The prophet had distinctly declared that the

82 THE INCARNATION.

Messiah would come as a king, saying, — "Re-
joice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O
daughter of Jerusalem : behold thy king com-
eth unto thee ; he is just, and having salvation,
lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt,
the foal of an ass." And this prediction was ful-
filled to the very letter, when at the triumphant
entrance of our Lord into Jerusalem, "the whole
multitude of the disciples began to rejoice, and
praise God with a loud voice, for all the mighty
works that they had seen, saying, Blessed be
the king that cometh in the name of the Lord ;
peace in heaven, and glory in the highest." —
And when the Pharisees were offended at this
open declaration that he was Messiah the king,
and desired him to rebuke his disciples, so far
was he from complying with their request, and
suppressing the voices that hailed him as the
long-promised king, that "he answered and said
unto them, I tell you that if these should hold
their peace the stones would immediately cry
out."

And was he who was thus announcing him-
self to Zion as her king, whom her eyes were
almost failing with long looking for, as yet a
king only in expectancy? Was he not acknow-
ledged by Nathaniel, and hailed by the multi-
tude, as "King of Israel?" And are we to
suppose that it was without the Providence of
God, and without the dictation of his Holy Spi-

THE INCARNATION. 83

rit, that Pilate wrote, and, though entreated
by the offended Jews, refused to alter that in-
scription which officially, and more truly than
Pilate knew, declared that he, who was sus-
pended on the cross, was '*King of the Jews ?"
Had there been any one of his offices in which
he did not distinctly announce himself to the
Jews, then, so far, had they been guiltless, as
they could not be guilty of rejecting that which
was never offered to them.

He came not only as King of the Jews, but
he came that in man's nature he might over-
throw man's foes, might spoil the spoiler, divest
Satan of his long usurped dominion, enter into
the strong man's house, bind him and take from
him his goods, and cast out the prince of this
world. During the whole course of his life he
showed his superiority to the powers of dark-
ness. The demons knew him to be the " Holy
one of God," and shunned his presence, and fled
his approach, and offered no resistance to his
commands. The hour of their power was not
yet come, and they could afflict him only through
the instrumerftality of wicked men. But that
hour did come, — the hour when the soul of
Jesus began to be "amazed and very heavy,"
words which fall far short indeed of expressing
the energy of the original, as that and all other
language must fall far short of expressing in an

84 THE INCARNATION.

adequate manner, all the Tearfulness of that
amazement and horror of mind which then-
seized him. The hour did come which made
him cry out, " Now is my soul troubled ; and
what shall I say 1 Father save me from this
hour ; but for this came I unto this hour, — Fa-
ther, glorify thy name." Now, what was it that
made the prospect of this hour so terrible to
Jesus ? Was it the mere dread of death ? The
supposition is totally inconsistent with the
whole of his conduct and character. Many of
his disciples have endured the cross, and sub-
mitted to all the tortures that ingenuity could
devise ; and even women and children have suf-
fered all these tortures, without a groan. And
did Jesus look on the mere pain of dying with
more than all the terror, and cling to a troubled
life with more than all the weakness of mortal
man ? No. It was not dying that he dreaded,
but the fearful conflict by which his death was
to be preceded. The powers of darkness were
all let loose upon him to assail him with their
utmost force. A broken law came to demand
of him the restitution of all its violated honour,
and to inflict upon him the curse due to its vio-
lation. And was it only a part of its demand
that it then insisted upon 1 Only a part of its
penalty, that it then inflicted? We cannot think
it. We cannot see how the law was honoured,

THE INCARNATION. 85

if only a part of the violations by which it had
been insulted and trampled upon, were visited
upon him, and only a part of its penalty en-
dured. It was not merely a few of the iniquities
of his people, " but the iniquities of us all," that
he bore on the cross. And how did he bear
them ? Was it in mere outward show, while
in reality he felt not their penal consequences I
How he could be said to bear them then, and
to restore that which he took not away, we un-
derstand not, and if when the sinner is first awa-
kened to a sense of his guilt, or when the back-
slider begins to be filled with the fruit of his
own ways, — when conscience is setting his
sins in array before him, and the law is stamping
all the bitterness of its curse upon every one of
them, thus filling his heart with terrors that can
find expression only in groanings unutterable,
and more fearful by far than the terrors of
death, — if the guilt of one individual can thus
fill the heart of that individual with such anguish
and such agony, who may venture to form any
estimate of the agony endured by Christ when
he made his soul an offering for sin, — when the
deceit of Jacob, the adultery and murder of
David, the denial of Peter, and the persecutions
of Paul, when the sins of an apostate world were
collected into one dark mass, and its whole bur-
den lajd upon him ? The law, inexorable as the
8

86 THE INCARNATION.

stony tablets upon which it was engraved, was
there, setting all the sins by which his guilty
people had been polluted, in array before him,
filling his soul with all their terrors, and exact-
ing from him the penalty due to them all. And
death was there, — armed with a power, and
clothed with terrors, in which he never before
or since assailed living being. It is sin that
forms the sting of death, and invests him with
all his powers. And if his assaults be terrible
to every individual of us, on account of our own
individual sins, — and if he be terrible to us often,
even when we know that these sins are all for-
given, who may estimate the power and the
terror with which he assailed our Lord, when
armed with the power and invested with the
terrors, not of the sins of an individual, but of
those of a lost world ? And he who had the
power of death, even Satan, was there, with all
his powers unfettered and unrestrained, to try
what they might avail against the " second
man," in the hour of sorest travail. And the
prince of the powers of the air spread darkness
over all the land, and made the earth to quake
in the mightiness of his efforts. But these were
only faint and feeble shadows of the darkness
and commotion which were raised in the soul of
the sufferer, in that hour of Ins dismal conflict,
when his power to accomplish the original

THE INCARNATION. 87

promise was put to its last fearful trial ; when
he conquered in suffering, and bruised the ser-
pent's head while his own heel was bruised.

Now had there been in any department of
Christ's person, any thing to which the terms
sinful, fallen, rebellious, could with the most
distant approach to truth or justice be applied,
we would ask if his escape from this hour of
the power of darkness was a thing within the
bounds of possibility ? Had the law found in
him the slightest ground to which it might at-
tach the curse due to its violation, it would have
held him fast in its adamantine chain, as a
debtor on his own account, and never would he
have been able to rescue himself, much less us,
from its inexorable grasp. Had death and he
who had the power of death, found the slight-
est ground in which the sting of death might
be planted, then assuredly had death had for-
cible dominion over him, and the blackness of
that darkness which was around him and within
him, in the garden and on the cross, had been
his portion for ever. But he endured their ut-
most rage, deeply tried, tried with a trial be-
yond aught that mortal man may ever compre-
hend, but unsubdued. He endured till the
law had no farther claim, till the powers of
darkness fled, their utmost power defeated and
baffled, and with them passed away the dark-

68 THE INCARNATION.

ness from the land, and from the soul of the
victorious and triumphant sufferer, and Satan
saw that his long usurped dominion over the
world was now utterly and hopelessly broken.
He endured till he could say, " It is finished,"
till " having spoiled principalities and powers,
he made a show of them openly, triumphing
over them in it," namely in his cross He en-
dured till all his confidence and trusl in his
Father had returned, to restore peace and holy
joy to the soul from which they had for a time
withdrawn, and then, having openly shown that
the princes of this world had nothing in him,
he freely and voluntarily gave a life which was
still his own for the life of a lost world. Fear-
ful was the conflict that he sustained during
the hour of the " power of darkness," but happy
and glorious was the result, and splendid was
the victory in which his sufferings terminated,
and most royally triumphant was his death.

From these remarks the reader will perceive
that I maintain, not only that Christ's death
was as necessary to the due discharge of his
royal office, as it was to the due discharge of
his prophetic and sacerdotal offices ; but that
I further maintain, that his death, at the very
last moment of his mortal existence, was per-
fectly voluntary. — that at that moment, whether
he would or would not die, was a thing as com-

THE INCARNATION. 89

pletely in his power to determine, as, previous
to his Incarnation, it was within his power to
determine whether he would or would not be
made flesh. The simple statement which we
have made of the conflict that he had to endure
on the cross, and of the victorious manner in
which he came out of that conflict; might per-
haps be considered a sufficient proof of this.
But as it is a matter of the highest importance,
I shall enter a little further into it.

In support of the position that Christ was
not subject to death, but that he laid down his
life of his own accord, I quote his own ex-
press declaration to that purpose : " Therefore
doth my Father love me, because I lay down
my life, that I might take it again. No man
taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself ;
I have power to lay it down, and I have power
to take it again. This commandment have I
received of my Father." Nothing, it appears
to me, can be simpler, or clearer, or more un-
ambiguous, than this declaration of our Lord,
that his life was at his own disposal. This he
spoke of his human life, for it would be worse
than absurd to suppose that, before he had a
human life, he could have used any such lan-
guage. It is very clear from this, that the life
which he had taken, was a mortal life, else he
could not have laid it down at all. And it is
8*

90 THE INCARNATION.

equally clear, that having taken a mortal life,
he could not say that he had power to lay it
down, if, in point of fact, he had no power to
retain it, but was compelled to forego it. He
could not say that lie had power to lay it down,
and to lake it again, in order to show that he
was Lord both of life and of death, if he died
because he had come into the region of death,
and was no more able to avoid dying than any
of those to whom he spoke. If he was not
God, and had not assumed human life at his own
pleasure, then he could have used no such lan-
guage ; for no created being can, by any pos-
sibility, possess the power here claimed by
Jesus. But if he was God, and if the human
life which he had assumed was as truly his
own life as his Divinity was his own, then he
unquestionably did possess a sovereign right to
dispose of that life as he pleased. And if he
had not that power over his own life, which no
created being can have, then it was not pos-
sible to present that life a voluntary offering
for the world. It was not his to give. In that
case he did no more than Codrus, Curtius, and
a hundred more have done. Being bound to
die at any rale, he was generous enough to an-
ticipate the date of his death, in order to ac-
complish an important purpose, and acquire a
deathless fame. Though what important pur-

THE INCARNATION. 91

pose could be accomplished by his death, if he
had placed himself in a situation where death
was unavoidable, it is not easy to see.

Should the possibility of a doubt yet remain,
whether the text under consideration just means
what it so very plainly states, — should it be
thought possible, without impiety, to under-
stand our Lord to mean any thing else than
just that at the moment when he was speak-
ing, he had absolute power over the life which
his hearers saw him possess, to lay it down
and to take it up at his pleasure, let us con-
sider the purpose for which he made the de-
claration. His object was to convince his au-
ditors that he was the Life, and that therefore
all who committed themselves to him would
be perfectly safe, for none could pluck them
out of his hand. And the proof, that in him
their life was safe, was, that he himself had a
life which no man could take from him, — a life
over which death had no power. Now this
is just the ground on which our confidence in
him rests, that '• as the Father hath life in him-
self, so hath he given the Son to have life in
himself." But if, when the hour of trial come,
it was found that he could not resist the power
of death in himself, nor realize the declaration
that he made, that no man could take his life
from him, — then how can we possibly rely

92 THE INCARNATION.

upon him, that he can repel the power of death
from us, or fulfil the promise that he has made
to us, that none shall ever be able to pluck us
out of his hand ? He who could not save
himself from the grasp of the King of terrors,
can afford us little confidence in his power to
save us. If, then, to maintain that Christ was
a fallen, sinful man, and as incapable of re-
sisting death as we are, — if to maintain that
when the hour of trial came, he conquered not
death, but death conquered him, if this be not
directly to falsify his own express declaration
and to overthrow the very pillars of the Chris-
tian's hope, I know not what can be considered
as doing so.

It is of no avail to tell us that, at his resur-
rection, this gift of having life in himself, —
this quickening power was restored. For how
do we know that he holds that gift now, by a
firmer tenure than that by which he held it
before ? When he declared to the Jews, that
the Father had given him power to have life
in himself, and further assured them that he
had perfect power over that life, he had all the
fulness of the Godhead dwelling in him, to
enable him to resist any violence by which he
might be assailed. Can he have more than
all the fulness of the Godhead to guard it now ?
Yet we are told that a stronger than he came,

THE INCARNATION. 93

and by violence took away the gift, which the
Father had given him for the life of the world.
After the restoration of that gift, are we not
left to dread, that, by similar violence, it may
again be taken away, since assuredly it can
be secured by no stronger power now than it
was at first ?

Another text, which very clearly evinces our
Lord's victory over death, is in Hebrews, v. 7.
"Who, in the days of his flesh, when he had
offered up prayers and supplications, with
strong crying and tears, unto him that was
able to save him from death, and was heard,
in that he feared." To him, as man, death
was naturally terrible ; and, coming to him
armed with terrors incalculably greater than he
ever assaulted any other man with, awakened
prayers and supplications of the most earnest
and pathetic description. One of them we
have recorded in Psalm xxii, which he repeated
on the cross: "Deliver my soul from the
sword ; my darling from the power of the dog.
Save me from the lion's mouth, for thou hast
heard me from the horns of the unicorns."
Such were his prayers in the hour of his fear-
ful conflict with the powers of darkness. And
how was he heard? Was it by being given
up, a bound captive, into the power of death,
and of him who had the power of death, that

94 THE INCARNATION.

is, the devil ? No ; but he was heard by being
sustained against all their violence, till he tri-
umphed over them on the cross, and death,
and he that had the power of death, fled away
baffled, and found that they had met with one
mail} against whom their utmost efforts could
avail nothing. And then he voluntarily laid
down a life which was still his own to give or
to retain ; and he entered into the domain of
death, not as a captive, but as a conqueror, to
fulfil the prediction, " O death, I will be thy
plagues ; O grave, I will be thy destruction."
Could he accomplish this prediction by being
overcome by death on the cross? No; had
death, and he who had the power of death, for
one moment overmastered him, then was every
hope of a lost world extinguished, and that for
ever.

Again, if the Prince of this world conquered
Christ upon the cross, and violently took away
his life, then it is clear that he was not then,
" King of kings, and Lord of lords ;" he had
met with his superior ; he was mt even a king
at all, but a fallen, sinfu- man. But how then
could he save men from the beginning of the
world? And if the cross was a scene of his
defeat, and the monument of his weakness, how
can it also be the foundation of our hopes, and
the ground of our glorying? Or with what truth

THE INCARNATIOJf. 95

could the Apostle say that he triumphed over
principalities and powers on the cross, if there
they, in reality, triumphed over him ?

Finally I appeal, as a proof of the regal char-
acter of our Lord's death, to the circumstances
that attended it, all of which strongly show that
at the moment when it took place it was perfect-
ly voluntary. When the band of men and of-
ficers went out to take him, he showed how
easily he could have escaped out of their hands,
for " as soon as he had said unto them, I am he,
they went backwards and fell to the ground,"
overwhelmed, doubtless by some exhibition of
his divine power. And when his disciples
would have defended him, he told them that,
if he wanted defence, he could have, not
twelve unarmed apostles, but twelve legions
of angels for that purpose. "But then, how
shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it
must be." Even after he was fastened to the
cross, he showed that he was still the life, in
the promise made to the penitent thief. What
could possibly induce that malefactor to apply
in such circumstances to a fellow sufferer, as
incapable, according to some, of resisting the
death to which both had been doomed, as him-
self/ It is unquestionable that he had observ-
ed in Christ something more than mortal,
when he addressed to him the prayer, " Lord,

96 THE INCARNATION.

remember me when thou comest into thy king-
dom." And why has the Holy Ghost recorded
the fact, but lo show, that he who, in such a
situation, could make the magnificent promise,
" Verily I say unto thee, to-day shall thou be
with me in Paradise," was not himself the weak
victim of death ? And are we to say that he
who thus almost with his dying breath, con-
ferred eternal life, was unable to save his own
life from the assault of death '/ And when he
had endured all that his foes, whether men or
devils, could inflict : when the darkness passed
away, and the victory was won ; then did he
cry out, not. with the feeble breathings of a
man whose agonies had worn him down to the
very lowest stage of existence, and of whom
death had all but taken possession, but with
the shout of a conqueror, whose life after all
the assaults of death, after innumerable deaths
had been inflicted upon him, was yet as whole
within him as it had ever been, thus plainly
intimating, that, even at that moment, instead
of bowing his head and giving up the ghost,
he could have stepped down from the cross.
" But then how should the scriptures be ful-
filled?" "When the Centurion saw that he
50 cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said,
Truly this man was the Son of God." And
deeply is it to be regretted that Christian di-

THE INCARNATION. 97

vines should adopt systems of theology* which
compel them to deny a fact so clearly evinced
to the Centurion by the evidence of his own
senses, as to draw from him this confession, —
a confession which the Holy Ghost has thought
good to record for our conviction, that this MAN
freely gave up, for the redemption of a lost
world, a life which neither earth nor hell could
wring from him, and over which death had no
power.

It was essentially necessary that he who was
to deliver others from their sins, should himself
be perfectly free from any thing to which such
terms could have the remotest application.
And it was necessary that we should have the
clearest and most decisive evidence of this ',
for upon the certainty that. Christ was not
fallen or sinful, depends the reality of the
atonement, and the certainty of all our hopes.
And never was any thing so severely tried,
and never was testimony so decisive as that
which proves the total sinlessness of the man
Christ Jesus The traitor who betrayed him
pronounced him innocent. His accusers he
could boldly challenge to convince him of sin.

* This refers to the doctrine freely broached and advo-
cated at the time the above was first written, that the flesh
of Christ was sinful or at least peccable, and that Christ
« did no sin' only because ' the will of the spirit enforced
the flesh to do it unwilling service.

9

98 THE INCARNATION.

The sentence of the judge who doomed him
to the cross was. " I find no fault in him."
Much guilt however might have been in him,
which no mortal eye could detect ; and in a
matter in which we are so deeply and vitally
concerned, much stronger evidence than that of
the Jews and of Pilate was necessary ; and
much stronger evidence is given. The justice of
God assailed him, armed with all the demands
of a violated law. saying, "pay me that thou
owest." The debt was paid, the penalty was
endured, every demand was satisfied, and di-
vine justice retired, saying, " I find no fault in
him ; I have scourged him with every strife
due as the penalty of the law ; let him go !
The powers of darkness were let loose upon
him, to try if their malice could find aught in
him with which they might claim alliance, or
on which they might ground the slightest
charge against him ; and after efforts, the pow-
er of which we can little apprehend, they fled
baffled away, howling out in anguish their own
hopeless doom, while forced to say, ' We find
no fault in him ; we have scourged him with
worse than scorpion's stings and have been
compelled to let him go.' Thus heaven, and
earth, and hell unite in proclaiming to us the
entire and perfect sinlessncss of God's holy
child Jesus, and pouring on our hearts the

THE INCARNATION. 99

conviction, that in him was no fault,— nothing
which the inexorable justice of heaven could
condemn, and nothing on which the unmitigat-
ed malice of hell could lay hold.

When the Word became flesh, he was not
less the Word and the power of God, — not
less the light and life of men, — not less the
ruler and Lord of all, than he was before the
Incarnation. He did not cease to be God
when he became man. When he bore hunger
and thirst, he was nevertheless showing, by
changing water into wine, and by feeding
thousands with a few loaves, that he it was
who was indeed supplying the wants of every
living thing ; and that he endured hunger and
thirst from no defect of power. When he had
not where to lay his head, he was not the less
" God over all, blessed forever." When, wea-
ried, he rested on Jacob's well, the pillars of
heaven, and the foundations of the earth rested
securely on his sustaining power. And never
did he give so splendid a proof that he was
indeed the Life, as when he died. For the
mystery and the marvel which angels desired
to look into was, how he, by any possibility,
could die. But they knew not all the extent
of his power, they knew not that he had the
keys of hell and of death, and that, rebelling
as they were against heaven, they were still

100 THE INCARNATION.

completely subject to him, till they saw him
tread the region of mortality, and enter at his
own pleasure, unsubdued, as a conqueror, into
their dreary domain. Then indeed, when he
died, did they know, and for the first time know,
in all the extent of its meaning, that he was the
Life.

Christ then was King when he was on the
earth, — a King in the lowest state of his deep
humiliation ; no less than now when he is ex-
alted to the right hand of the Father ; and in his
very humiliation giving the most splendid and
decisive proof of his omnipotent power. Be-
fore proceeding farther, it will be proper to
notice some of the duties which we owe to him
as our King.

The first of these, which I shall notice is,
to obey his laws. To neglect this is to deny
that he is King. "Why call ye me Lord,
Lord, and do not the things which I say ? "
It is not to be doubted that many profess to
•rely on him as their propitiation, who pay no
great regard to his laws ; and think themselves
perfectly safe, while living in the habitual neg-
lect of some of his commands ; nay, who are
less careful to avoid sin just on account of the
sufficiency of him on whom they profess to
rely for the pardon of sin. But we may rest
assured that if Christ be not a king whom we

THE INCARNATION- 101

obey, neither is he a priest who will save us.
To hope that we can be saved without obe-
dience, is not only to hope against hope, but
against possibility ; for surely it is not possible
to be saved from sin while yet we are living
in sin. Nor is our obedience to be limited by
our convenience, our pleasure, nor our present
interest, nor by the sufferings to which we may
be called in its discharge. That is no obe-
dience which extends only as far as we find it
convenient. It was not such. obedience that
was yielded by Christ for our sakes, when he
submitted to " learn obedience by the things
which he suffered." Nor was it such obe-
dience that he required of us, when he said,
" If any man will come after me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross and follow me."
But we are required, not only to obey the
laws of Christ, but to approve them, — to love
them. " Bodily service profile th nothing ; "
and our external compliance with a law which
we hate in our hearts, is by our King consid-
ered as no obedience at all. The reason of
this is sufficiently obvious. Our obedience is
required that it may do good, not to God, who
needs not our services, but to ourselves ; that
it may establish in us such habits as will fit us
for the occupations and enjoyments of a higher
;state of existence. But if it proceed from any
9*

102 THE INCARNATION.

improper principle, then its operation will be
in direct opposition to this end, and conse-
quently must meet the disapprobation of him
41 the end of whose commandment is charity,
out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience,
and of faith unfeigned." Every action strength-
ens the principle from which it proceeds ; and
being often repeated, renders the exercise of
that principle necessary to our happiness. And
when our love to God and man has been so
" rooted and grounded" in us by a long course
of holiness, that the exercise of it constitutes
all our felicity, we are then fitted for the king-
dom of heaven. Whereas the most perfect
obedience, were it possible for such obedience
to proceed from any other principle, would not
in the slightest degree promote our moral im-
provement, nor our meetness for the society of
angels and the spirits of just men made per-
fect.

Another duty which we owe to our King is
to depend upon his power. If such an obe-
dience as has been described be essentially re-
quisite, it may be said, " Who then can be
saved?" Had outward obedience only been
necessary, even that is difficult. But who can
change the whole current of his thoughts, af-
fections, and desires, — can bring himself to
hate and despise what he loves with ah1 his

THE INCARNATION. 103

heart, — and to love and delight in all that he is
most averse to? Can we make ourselves new
creatures ? No. We could as easily have
created ourselves at first. But this will by no
means form any apology for disobedience.
For as the wisdom of our Prophet removes
our ignorance, and the sacrifice of our Priest
removes our condemnation, so that we are
without excuse if we be either ignorant or in
a state of alienation from God ; in the same
manner, the power of our King removes our
moral weakness, and endues us with strength
to triumph over the foes whom he has conquer-
ed, so that we are inexcusable if we remain the
servants of sin. And as the renovation of the
heart is a gradual thing, .the grace that enables
us to do it, must be sought from him daily.
The soul needs its daily bread not less than
the body.

Another duty which we owe to our King is,
to confide in his goodness. It is for the pur-
pose of delivering us out of the hand of all our
enemies, and of promoting our welfare, that
the Mediator is exalted to the throne of the
universe, and appointed the sole disposer of
every event in which we are concerned. We
cannot for a moment doubt that he is abundant-
ly able to give us every thing necessary for our
happiness, and nothing can be more offensive

104 THE INCARNATION.

than to distrust his willingness to do so. He
has given us the proofs of his love to little pur-
pose, if we " faint when we are rebuked of
him," and, when he tries us, presently con-
dude that he has forsaken us. This is a sin
for which Israel was often reproved. " Why
sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, 0 Israel,
my way is hid from the Lord, and my judg-
ment is passed over from my God T' And
surely, if we distrust our King, who assumed
our nature, and submitted to our infirmities,
that we might be more certainly assured of his
sympathy, we can have less excuse than Israel
had. If, therefore, we be visited with severe
trials, let us not hastily say with Jacob, " All
these things are against me," for, if our dis-
trust do not lead us to take improper means to
escape from them, we shall find that all these
things are, in reality, working together for our
good.

Another duty which we owe to our King is,
to preserve the peace of his kingdom. The
subjects of Christ's kingdom are commanded
to love one another, and that even as Christ
has loved them. Had this law been always
acted upon, it is not easy to estimate the hap-
piness of the effect that would have been pro-
duced. And the miserable effects that pro-
ceed from the dissensions among Christ's sub'

THE INCARNATION. 105

jects, and the weakness that has been intro-
duced into his kingdom, by its being divided
into so many different parties, need not be
pointed out. Christ's kingdom has thus been
rent, and its peace destroyed by the pride of
men, who, having exalted their own opinion,
upon some indifferent matter, into an article
of fundamental importance, have renounced
the communion of all who refuse to adopt the
same notion. And whenever communion
among Christians is broken off, a heavy
weight of guilt attaches to that party which
causes the schism. In order to avoid this guilt,
every disciple of Jesus ought to be very cau-
tious in refusing to hold communion with a
fellow- subject, lest, when both parties stand
before their King, this refusal be decided to
have proceeded from no sufficient cause.
Even the errors of Christians afford no just
ground of separating from their communion,
excepting in one of these two cases, — either
when they err fundamentally, and by so doing,
cease to be Christians ; in which case their
communion is in reality no communion, and,
in renouncing it, we make no schism ; — or
when, supposing their errors to be of a less
important nature, they require us distinctly
and formally to profess our approbation of
those errors, against our own convictions ; in

106 THE INCARNATION.

which case we cannot hold communion with
them, without being hypocrites, and are bound
to separate from them ; but the guilt of the
schism rests with them. But to separate from
the communion of men whom we believe to be
true Christians, merely because, on some points
of inferior moment; they maintain opinions dif-
ferent from our own, — while they do not re-
quire us to adopt or profess these opinions, —
is a degree of presumption and arrogance
which it is hard to reconcile with the spirit of
genuine Christianity. Surely he has much
need to inquire what he can offer to his Judge
as an apology for his conduct, who has burst
asunder the Redeemer's perfect bond of char-
ity, and cast away that cord of love, by which
the great Head of the church has united all
the different members of his mystical body in
the closest intimacy ; who has, by his conduct,
declared, that unless he himself be the head,
he will be no part of the body ; and who, re-
fusing to acknowledge the disciples of Christ
as his fellow-subjects, has renounced their com-
munion, unless they would renounce every
opinion which he does not approve, and adopt,
on his authority, terms of communion which
Christ never appointed.

Another duty which we owe to our King, is,
to extend his kingdom. That this is our duty

THE INCARNATION. 107

hardly needs to be proved. We are com-
manded to exhibit in our conduct the excellence
of the principles of Christianity, in such a man-
ner as to allure others to cultivate them, — to
make " our light so to shine before men, that
they may see our good works, and glorify our
Father who is in heaven." We are soldiers
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and as good soldiers,
should do every thing in our power to promote
the designs of our leader. To rescue an im-
mortal being from the dominion of sin, and
make him a subject of the King of kings, is a
nobler victory than any that the historian has
recorded, or the poet sung. If ever enthusi-
asm be amiable or useful, then surely it is so
when it regards the noblest object that ever
awakened the desires or called forth the exer-
tions of any human being ; and the Christian
may be permitted to indulge no ordinary de-
gree of ardour in the prosecution of a design,
for the accomplishment of which the Son of
God did not hesitate to die. If, then, we re-
gard either the authority or example of our
King, if we would wish, when our days are
at an end, to say that they have not been spent
in vain, and that we have not been useless mem-
bers of his kingdom, nor careless of its pros
perity, — if we wish to associate at last with
the glorious men who have instructed the

108 THE INCARNATION.

church by their wisdom, adorned it by their
holiness, and cemented its foundation with their
blood, then let us exert ourselves, by example,
by instruction, by every means in our power,
to promote the prosperity, and extend the limits
of that kingdom into which we ourselves have
by the grace of God been brought. For " they
that be wise, shall shine as the brightness of
the firmament, aud they that turn many unto
righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever."

We have thus traced our Saviour in the
discharge of all his offices of Prophet, Priest,
and King. For the discharge of all of them
his death, and consequently his incarnation,
was essentially necessary. He discharged the
the duties resulting from these offices from the
beginning. He discharged them all during his
sojourn on the earth, and we have seen that in
his death he gave the most complete exhibition
of each of his offices. Christ is not and never
was divided. When speaking of his different
offices, we ascribe, and properly ascribe, one
action or characteristic, to one office more pe-
culiarly than to another ; yet ought we never
to forget that, in his one person, the three
offices were inseparably combined, and,
throughout his life, were manifested together.
For what is it that gives to his every prophe-

THE INCARNATION. 109

tic act, by which he manifests the Father, so
high a claim upon our reverential regard ? Is
it not this, that his every prophetic act com-
bines with it all the sacredness of his sacerdo-
tal character, and all the authority of his re-
gal power ; so that, if we refuse to be taught
by him, we cut ourselves off from all partici-
pation in his sacerdotal grace, and expose our-
selves to be crushed beneath the weight of
that iron rod by which he will dash his ene-
mies to pieces ? Hence it is said that " the
people were astonished at his doctrine, for he
taught them as one having authority." And
when he performs any sacerdotal act, as when
he said to the sick of the palsy, " Thy sins be
forgiven thee," is it not also a prophetic act,
manifesting the grace and the power of the
Godhead 1 and is it not an efficacious act, sim-
ply because what, as a Priest he has grace to
promise, as a King he has power to bestow ?
And his every regal act is performed for the
the purpose of giving power and efficacy to his
prophetic revelations, and to his sacerdotal
grace. And the offices, thus united in him
through his whole life, were not separated at
its close. His sufferings in the garden and on
the cross, not only constituted a perfect satis-
faction to divine justice for our sins, but form-
ed at the same time, by far the most impres-
10

110 THE INCARNATION.

sive and instructive portion of his prophetic
manifestation of the divine character, and also
the most victorious and triumphant exhibition
of his regal power, when the serpent's head
was bruised, and principalities and powers de-
feated and triumphed over.

There remains but one view of the subject
to be presented, and that I cannot better give,
than in a comment on the following passage of
Scripture.

" Forasmuch, then, as the children are par-
takers of flesh and blood, he also himself like-
wise took part of the same ; that through death
he might destroy him that had the power of
death, that is, the devil j and deliver them, who,
through fear of death, were all their lifetime
subject to bondage. For verily he taketh not
hold of angels ; but of the seed of Abraham
he taketh hold. Wherefore in all things ifc
behooved him to be made like unto his bre-
thren ; that he might be a merciful and faith-
ful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to
make reconciliation for the sins of the people."
Heb. ii. 14-17.

In the sixteenth verse I have followed the
marginal reading. I have done so, because it
is the literal translation of the Apostle's words j
because it appears to be necessary to his chain
of reasoning ; and because the received reading

Jjf

THE INCARNATION. Ill

seems to involve an unmeaning tautology. The
fact, I conceive, which the Apostle meant to
state is, that he undertook to help not angels,
but men, " wherefore," he adds, u in all things
it behooved him to be made like to his bre-
thren"— like, not to angels, but to men.

In order to render my view of this passage
as clear as possible, I would direct the atten-
tion of the reader to a principle that is often
exemplified in Scripture. I refer to the fre-
quent preference of the younger to the elder.
Of the two first-born of men, Cain and Abel,
the younger was chosen and the elder rejected.
Of the three sons of Noah, the second pro-
genitor of mankind, Shem, the youngest, was
chosen as the heir of promise. Of the two
sons of Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac, though
Abraham had repeatedly prayed, " Oh that
Ishmael might live before thee," it was said,
" in Isaac shall thy seed be called." Of the
two sons of Isaac, Esau and Jacob, before they
were born, it was said, " the elder shall serve
the younger." Of the two sons of Joseph,
Ephraim the younger was preferred to Manas-
seh the eider. Of the sons of Jesse, David
the youngest, and whom his father did not even
think it worth while to present to the prophet,
was chosen to be king of Israel. And to
name no more, of all the sons of David, So-

112 THE INCARNATION.

lomon was chosen to build a temple to the
Lord.

Now, a fact of this nature so frequently
occurring, and so sedulously recorded, must
be considered as pointedly intended to direct
our attention to the principle involved in it ;
and the Apostle Paul, in expounding one of
these instances, has taught us how to under-
stand all the rest. They are intended to mani-
fest the sovereignty of the Lord. — to show that
he seeth not as man seeth, nor chooseth as man
would choose, — to show that all power and all
excellence are from God alone. And, there-
fore, "God hath chosen the foolish things of
the world to confound the' wise ; and God hath
chosen the weak things of the world to con-
found the things that are mighty ; and base
things of the world, and things that are despised
hath God chosen, yea, and things which are
not, to bring to naught the things that are."
And why ? " That no flesh should glory in his
presence," — that all should own that whatever
grace, or goodness, or excellency is in them,
it is not from themselves, but from God. and
that, if they differ from others, it is God who
makelh them to differ. This principle, there-
fore, which is involved in the preference of the
younger to the elder, and to which our atten-
tion is directed not once nor twice, but many

THE INCARNATION. 113

times, is seen in all the dispensations of God,
that his own sovereignty may be manifested
in them all.

While every thing in the works of men has
a tendency to degenerate, God has from the
beginning manifested that his works have a
very different character, and are continually
going on from good to better in endless pro-
gression, and that one dispensation only pre-
pares the way for, and gives place to another
that is more perfect. Thus the patriarchal
dispensation prepared the way for the Jewish,
the Jewish for the Christian, the present state
of the Christian for its millennial state, and
that for something still more glorious. And
thus when the Gospel was first established, it
was not by the wisdom, or the wealth, or the
power of man, but by feeble means in oppo-
sition to all these. The treasure was com-
mitted to earthen vessels, that the excellency
of the power might be seen to be of God.

But these instances, and many others that
might be added to them, — the preference of the
younger to the elder in so many cases, — the
choice of the Jews to be God's peculiar people,
when they were the fewest of all people, — the
choice of the fishermen of Galilee to build the
church, — while they all exhibit the sovereignty
of God, are but very obscure, and partial, and
10*

114 THE INCARNATION.

limited exhibitions of it, compared with that
universal and glorious manifestation of it re-
ferred to in the text under discussion, where
the choice lay not between one individual and
another, nor between one nation and another,
but between two lost WORLDS. There stood
before God two fallen families, — fallen angels
and fallen men. Alike they were doomed to
wo for their sins, and unless an almighty arm
should lay hold on them, alike would they both
have sunk in remediless misery. It belonged
to God alone to determine whether he wrould
save one or both of these families, or leave them
both to perish. And when he had announced
his determination to save one of them, that the
work of redemption might afford a new mani-
festation of the divine perfections, and give a
more clear and a more glorious revelation of
these perfections than his creatures could ever
otherwise have seen, it still remained with him
to determine which of the two fallen families
should be chosen as the objects in whose sal-
vation this manifestation should be made. And
O let our souls rejoice that here also the prin-
ciple, to which our attention is so carefully
directed in Scripture, — and so carefully di-
rected just for the purpose that we might not
overlook it, or fail to see it here, — was acted
upon. The younger was preferred to the

THE INCARNATION. 115

elder, — though carnal judgment would pro-
bably have made choice of angels, the ori-
ginally nobler family, and have left the meaner
creature of clay to perish.

This is the glorious and happy truth so clearly
expressed here by the apostle, " He taketh not
hold of Angels, but of the seed of Abraham he
taketh hold." He plainly declares the unspeaka-
ble majesty of the Divine Sovereignty in choos-
ing fallen men as the objects of that work of
redemption, which, beyond all things, reveals
his own glorious character, rather than fallen
angels, who, to the eye of sense, might perhaps
seem to have a better claim. And with this
view of the Divine Sovereignty, he combines
the equally astonishing view of the unspeakable
condescension of the Divine love. Of one of
two fallen families, who are alike in his hands,
and not one word in favour of either of which
might any created being venture to speak, he
saith, " Let them be reserved in chains of dark-
ness to the judgment of the great day ; " while
of the other he saith, "Deliver from going down
to the pit, I have found a ransom." Here is his
sovereignty. And what is the ransom for the
race to be redeemed ? The eternal Son be-
comes man, takes upon him flesh and blood
similar in all respects, sinfulness excepted, to
the creatures of clay whom he came to redeem,
10**

116 THE INCARNATION.

and dies in their stead that they might live.
Here is the depth of his love. And if it was
a great proof of the free and sovereign goodness
of God, that he chose Israel when they were
but "few men in number," "the fewest of all
people," how much more illustrious a display
of the same grace did he give, when he chose
men in preference to angels, as the objects of
redemption, when these creatures of clay were
few indeed, when the whole race consisted of
only two individuals. Any created judgment
would have said, What are these two feeble
individuals that they should, for a moment, be
put into the scale with a multitude of angels 1
Of what consequence can be the loss of two
earthly creatures, who may be so destroyed that
none shall ever spring from them, compared
with the loss of so many superior creatures ?
But God determined in a different manner
' He took not hold of fallen angels, but of fallen
men he took hold.' And why? "Even so,
Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight."

From this we see what it is that constitutes
at once the danger and the dignity of man.
God has permitted rebellion to be raised against
his authority, that in the progress of putting it
down he might give a manifestation of his per-
fections which otherwise could not have been

THE INCARNATION. 117

•given, and our world is the field on which the
powers of light and of darkness draw out their
forces in hostile array, and in that awful con-
flict which so deeply engages and interests the
attention of the whole universe, the post of dan-
ger and of glory, the van of the battle is assigned
to man. Everywhere is the contest carried on.
The human heart is itself the principal scene
of strife, and the soul of man is the victor's prize,
and man himself the chief gainer or sufferer by
the result. Angels go forth as ministering spi-
rits to minister to them that shall be heirs of
salvation, and doubtless delight to promote, as
far as may be in their power, the work of our
salvation. And cheering and animating as it is
to know that holy angels do go forth to our aid,
and doubtless do render us essential support,
though at present we can neither know the ser-
vices that they do us, nor the means by which
they do them, yet can we not forget that they
mingle, not as principals but as auxiliaries in
the strife ; that ours is the danger in the war,
and ours is the gain of victory.

And who is he who mustereth the armies of
the Lord of Hosts ? Who is the Captain of sal-
vation by whose strength they are made strong,
in whose might they are enabled to conquer?
Who makes them to triumph over principalities
and powers, over the rulers of the darkness of
10***

118 THE INCARNATION.

this world, over spiritual wickedness in high
places '} Who is he who so fully accomplished,
under circumstances of incalculably greater
difficulty, that which the first man had failed to
accomplish ? Was he one to whom the terms
fallen, sinful could with any propriety be ap-
plied 1 No. God calleth him " Mine elect in
whom my soul delighteth," "My beloved Son
in whom I am well pleased." Could language
like this be applied to one who himself needed
to be reconciled to God before he could recon-
cile others ? No. When man was made, Satan
had come into the world, boasting that he had
led principalities and powers into sin ; and shall
this creature of clay stand'/ And the easiness
of his conquest, and the completeness of his
dominion, seemed to leave for a time the wisdom
and power of God in doubt. He had found one
man in whom he had nothing, but soon im-
planted sinfulness in him and made him an easy
prey. He is compelled now to meet, on the
field of his own conquered and polluted world,
the Second Man, coming in all the untainted
sinlessness of the First Man, but surrounded
with difficulties and exposed to trials of which
the First Man, had he retained his innocence,
could have had no experience, and yet so
mightily upheld by the Godhead dwelling in
him, that Satan and all his powers could find

THE INCARNATION. 119

nothing in him, and could implant nothing in
him, with which they might claim alliance, else
assuredly had he also become their prey. And
when Satan had tried him and found nothing in
him, then did he stir up his agents to plot his
destruction, not knowing that the destruction of
Christ was the appointed means of his own ;
that when Christ gave a life which he did not
owe, and which could not be taken from him
by force, the life of a world dead in sin was re-
stored,--that when he entered voluntarily into
the dominion of death, that dominion was for
ever broken.

And if the events of any war are calculated
to arouse our attention, and interest our feel-
ings, surely much more is that war calculated
to do so, where more than blood may be spilt,
and more than empire may be lost or won.
When our own countrymen are abroad in the
field, — when the interests of our country are at
stake, with what anxious expectation are the
news of every day waited for ; and when they
inform us that the hostile armies are approach-
ing each other, with what palpitating eagerness
are they read ! And when the day does come
that brings their power to actual trial and de-
cision, with what feelings do we read and re-
read the minutest details, and dwell upon every
incident, and find every thing, however trifling,

120 THE INCARNATION.

possess a deep importance from its connexion
with such a scene ! They are our countrymen,
our friends, our brothers, whom we view arran-
ged upon the " cloudy edge of battle ere it join,"
and who under our eye, are passing into the
fatal contest. We hear from afar the " thunder
of the captains and the shoutings." We place
ourselves side by side with the warrior, as he
advances to the shock, where point to point,
and man to man, the embattled squadrons close
in deadly strife ; and while life and death hang
in dreadful suspense, our feelings are just the
warrior's own, and our very nostrils become
expanded with the intensity of a sensation that
hardly permits us to breathe, and every pulsa-
tion of our hearts bounds in perfect unison
with his. We can scarcely at such a moment
enter upon a discussion of the goodness or
badness of the cause, or to philosophize on
the manifold crimes and atrocities of war.
When we have imbibed the very spirit of the
warrior, when we are glorying, exulting in the
view, in the very feeling of an energy which
no toils can weary, of an ardour which no dif-
ficulties can abate, of a courage which the mul-
tiplication of dangers only arouses to a greater
intensity of daring ; at such a moment the cold-
ness of our moral calculations is melted away ;
the voice of reason and of philosophy is

THE INCARNATION. 121

drowned; and ''the raptures of the strife "are
all our own ; and to no voice can we listen, till
the " earthquake voice of victory " bursts upon
our ear. I ask not if this be a Christian or a
righteous feeling. I am merely stating a fact
of which every man must be conscious, that
on such an occasion, such are our feelings.
Nor is the art of the poet or the orator requi-
site to awaken them. The interest lies in the
facts themselves, and the dry details of a des-
patch, or the prosaic insipidity of a gazette,
has doubtless often been read with an intensity
of interest which the most animated poetry
never excited.

But while there are few who do not in some
degree experience these feelings, there are
many who are totally dead to the feelings that
should naturally be awakened by a much more
important and eventful war, — that moral and
spiritual war which is carried on around us
and within us, where more than mortal powers
are opposed, and more than mortal interests are
at stake. But whatever we may be, the angels
who have become acquainted with the character
of God, through the work of man's redemption,
are not insensible to the progress of that work.
They surround the throne of the Most High,
with golden harps ; and the events which awa-
ken these harps to heavenly harmony, and pour

122 THE INCARNATION.

from their strings that melody to which God
condescends to listen, and which mortal ear
may never hear, are just the triumphs of " the
redeemed of the Lord" over the influence of
that " other lord1' who has had dominion over
them ; and whose chains they have been ena-
bled to burst, through the power of him, who
amidst all the weakness of human flesh, and
under all the weight of the guilt of a lost
world, and all the deadliest efforts of Satan's
power, never fell, and never felt one unholy
desire or emotion. And " the spirits of the
just made perfect," clothed in the spotless robe
of a Redeemer's righteousness, feel it their
glorious privilege to tell of the toils which they
have been enabled to sustain in fighting the
good fight, — of the hardness which, as good
soldiers of Jesus Christ, they have been
strengthened to endure, — and of the energy
which they derived from the consciousness
that when (: Christ was formed in them the
hope of glory ;'' their hearts were enriched
not only with an uncorrupted, but with an
incorruptible seed, — a principle which Satan
could not subvert, nor death itself destroy.
And can we hope to partake with them in their
raptures, to unite with them in singing the
song of triumph and of praise, if we can con-
template the mighty warfare that is going

THE INCARNATION. 123

on between the powers of light and darkness,
with the most perfect apathy, as if we had no
personal interest in the matter ; and while we
have an ear open to the most trivial news of
the day, have neither an ear to hear, nor a
heart to be interested in the events of this
mighty war, but listen to any mention of it, as
if it were a matter of less importance than the
savage encounters of ferocious hordes of bar-
barians, on the banks of the Danube or the
shores of the Euxine.

I have but one additional remark to make.
It is this ; that for man no middle fate is pre-
pared, but happiness or misery in the extreme
must be his. The selected instruments of
carrying on that war which God wages with
sin ; the weak vessels of clay chosen to con-
found the mighty, through the power of him
who was incarnate for the purpose of securing
even to us worms of the dust the victory over
death and him that had the power of death, —
if wearied with the toils of the warfare, or in-
sensible to the glory of the victory, we desert
to the enemy, and continue his willing and
unresisting slaves, then do we sink into con-
demnation under the weight of a criminality
which even fallen angels could not contract,
for they at least have never treated the offered
mercy of God with contempt. And well may

124 THE INCARNATION.

they wonder to see in the human heart, a blind-
ness, a perversity, a madness which despises
even the offered friendship of God, and the
glories of heaven. And, on the other hand,
they who through faith in Christ enter into the
kingdom of heaven, enter there, the admiration
of angels, purchased with a price which for
the fallen portion of their own order was never
paid, and rescued out of dangers to which they
themselves were never exposed ; and therefore
do they glorify God in his saints, and admire
him in all them that believe.

Human nature is at this moment the highest
of created natures, and more intimately united
to the Godhead than any other ; and where our
Head is, there, in due time, shall all his mem-
bers be. Whoever then thou art who readest
this my page, my message to thee is, remember
that in a few short years, thou must occupy
that place to which angels may look up with
admiration, or that on which devils may look
down with the conviction that they have been
less guilty. Higher than heaven is the fate of
him whom the Sovereign of the universe be-
came man to redeem ; and lower than hell must
be the fate of him who, even at such a price,
refused to be redeemed. This awful yet ani-
mating consideration, may well arouse us to
hasten our escape from " the wrath that is to

THE INCARNATION. 125

come," and to " resist even unto blood, striving
against sin." How powerfully does it enforce
the admonition of the Apostle, " Therefore, my
beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord,
forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not
in vain in the Lord !"

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